Categories
politics

Unfounded Assumptions on Gun Control

When I wrote about the value of empowering my son to use sharp knives rather than restricting him from using them and compared that to the issue of gun control I got a number of opposing comments that were so full of assumptions that it warranted a separate post to address those assumptions. This is that post.

In the very first comment the assumption was stated that because I was raised pro-gun and the commentor was raised anti-gun our biases might prevent us from being able to have a productive conversation. I sincerely hope that is not the case but for the record I was NOT raised pro-gun. I was raised without any real reference to guns. My bias is not so much pro-gun as it is pro-solution with a bias towards individual liberty.

Categories
culture politics

Restriction vs Empowerment

Photo by Tony Young

My 6-year-old son frequently wants to use sharp knives and it is not uncommon for him to get them out of a drawer unsupervised when he has a task that he believes would be served by using a sharp knife. He likes to use then for reasonable things but as far as I can figure out I have only two options to solve this: I can make the knives less and less accessible or I can teach him how to use them safely. In order to make the best decision on how to handle this I should consider the real issues surrounding the situation rather than simply reacting to the immediate danger.

The whole conundrum reminds me of the issue of gun violence in our society. If we want to make a decision that will actually make a positive impact on the situation we have to understand what is really happening in context.

Categories
life

Miracles On An Icy Road

We witnessed a miracle this evening. Actually, we witnessed several. At one point we had 5 vehicles and a FedEx truck stuck on the hill between our house and two houses down from us. Over a two hour period we had at least 10 vehicles slide into various snow banks in that 150 foot stretch of road. Even the snowplow got stuck in front of our house when it tried to turn down our hill in order to salt the road.

On top of that the most obvious miracle was watching as one out of control car slid down the hill through four other stuck cars without hitting any vehicles or people who could not get out of the way because of how slick the road was.

Eventually we got all the cars freed and the only damage sustained was one tire flattened on a UTA service vehicle that slid into one of the curbs quite hard.

Categories
life

The Next Best Thing

I failed to get a picture of Ezra after he climbed into the toilet but I couldn’t pass up the chance to take a picture when I found that he had climbed into the sink this morning (in the same bathroom):
image

Categories
culture National politics

Saving Social Security

Photo by 401(K) 2013

A comment by Doug Wright on his show this morning got me thinking. Doug talked about how incensed he was by a comment made by someone running against Harry Reid that her father never cashed a social security check because he refused to take a handout. (I’m assuming he was referring to Sharron Angle but I’m too lazy to confirm that because the identity of the person he was quoting has no bearing on my subject.) Doug was incensed because of the characterization of Social Security as a handout considering that “we have all paid into it.”

The thought that struck me was that perhaps Social Security should be charity – as opposed to an expectation. The way the system is currently set up, everybody who pays into Social Security expects to receive checks from Social Security when they retire. That’s not entirely true of my generation, many of whom are highly skeptical that Social Security will still be around when we arrive at retirement age, but it is historically true. How much of our Social Security solvency problem would evaporate if we were to add means testing to the social security calculations such that those receiving payments would receive reduced payments or no payments depending on the amount of wealth they had available (regardless of whether they were tapping into that wealth).

Categories
life

Parenting Fail

At some point in their lives everybody has seen a picture on the internet where a parent chose to snap a photo of something crazy happening to (or caused by) their child. The photo is very funny but you are left wondering why the parent chose to take apicture rather than intervene in the situation.

I had one of those experiences with Ezra. Because I did not have a camera immediately available I opted to intervene even though I could have run to grab a camera first – I am starting to think I made the wrong decision. I am left with only the ability to describe the scene that I failed to capture on film.

Ezra is at that stage where he is fascinated by toilets. His fascination is much more acute than any of the other kids’ ever was. He will walk to distant parts of the house to get to an unguarded toilet so that he can play in it – often by sticking in a toy or brush and stirring/flinging the water. This time I walked into the bathroom to discover that he had a new trick – he had climbed into the toilet bowl and was sitting – happy as a clam – as if her were in a hottub. He was completely inside the bowl with the toilet seat at shoulder level. He looked up at me as if he had just conquered the world by climbing into the toilet. after considering a run to get a camera I opted to take him out of the toilet, strip off his diaper, and give him a bath – so much for the viral internet photo opportunity.

Categories
culture

The Scary Flu Monster

Flu ShotsPhoto By UIC Pharmacy

It always frustrates me when politics and fear drive institutional decisions rather than making decisions based on facts. One of my biggest pet peeves in this area is the hype surrounding the flu vaccine. I was reminded of this today when I heard about the new study casting doubt on the effectiveness of the vaccine.

To be clear, I am not at all opposed to people choosing to get vaccinated, nor am I opposed to organizations providing incentives such as free access to the vaccine in hopes of helping more people to choose to get vaccinated. My problem comes when organizations mandate that people get vaccinated – which is becoming more and more popular in health care organizations regardless of whether any employee or class of employees has any significant likelihood of having any patient contact. I also have a problem with all the public disinformation campaigns where the flu vaccine is heavily pushed by giving the impression that they are more effective than they really are.

The study that I heard about today indicates that the flu vaccine is effective in just over half of those adults who receive it. This is fully 1/3 less effective than has previously been claimed.

Along with that I was disappointed with the way the story was presented by KSL. They talked about the study and how disappointing it was to have this finding coming at the beginning of the flu season. That is in line with their reports last week that the flu was reaching epidemic proportions already early in the flu season. That statement would not bother me except that it’s hard to call this the beginning of the flu season when they were reporting 5 months ago that flu season was right around the corner. That made me question how long flu season is. As is often the case – Wikipedia provided the answer:

In the United States, the flu season is considered October through May. It usually peaks in February.

In other words, this is halfway through the flu season and approaching the peak. I guess they could argue that we are at the beginning of the peak of flu season but that is misleading at best when they have been promoting the flu shot for 5 months already.

Secondly, since I was at Wikipedia I wanted to get some information about the effectiveness of the vaccine that was not tied to this shocking new study. What I found there was even more disappointing to me. All my life I have been taught that the flu vaccine was most important for the physically weaker members of society like elderly and young children. Imagine my surprise when Wikipedia informs me that:

The group most vulnerable to non-pandemic flu, the elderly, is also the least to benefit from the vaccine.

So now I can see that the vaccine is less effective than previously claimed and that those who have been most encouraged to receive it are least likely to benefit from it. In a final blow to the hype surrounding this vaccine I also learned that, although we are strongly encouraged to get vaccinated each year:

protection without revaccination persists for at least three years for children and young adults.

This leads to one of two conclusions. Either vaccination every year is excessive or else we are fighting a losing battle against a disease that mutates every year so that we must be perpetually subjected to a vaccine that is barely 50% effective.

I don’t know about other people but that tells me that mandating that people receive the vaccine is based on an agenda that goes well beyond the facts – and I hate the very idea of such fear mongering.

Categories
life

Resolution

2013 is now a week old and I finally have resolution in sight for the problems I encountered last week: the kitchen is usable but there are a couple of finishing touches before the job is complete and the van was a completely different problem than what we first thought – the mechanics are hopeful that they can complete the work on it tomorrow.

In case all of that was not interesting enough we woke up on Saturday morning to discover that our tub would not drain AT ALL. After hours of work for me and a plumber we found that water had frozen in the drain for our tub (probably while we were out of the house the previous days). If anyone has that problem and is able to access the section of pipe where the ice is located – a good hair dryer is your best friend. ($300 to diagnose the problem – less than $30 to fix it.)

After all that – things are looking up.

Categories
life pictures

My First Turkey

I just finished cooking my first turkey and I just had to share:

Freshly cooked turkey

Categories
life

A Follow-Up

As a followup to yesterday – I got a ride to work and left my car so Laura would not be stranded while the van is being fixed (it seems to be more complicated than it appeared yesterday) and she just let me know that my car was dead this morning.

I’m pretty sure we have arrived at farcical now.