Life According to Mike: December 2012

School Violence:
some thoughts, some are even connected...

I would like to point out that none of the mass shooters were criminals (a misnomer if there ever was one- criminals are... like "them" a non defined group of individuals that we all talk about and yet have no clue who or what a 'criminal" actually is). Arming teachers is particularly ironic statement here in Tennessee where last year a teacher walked in and shot a principal and and assistant principal (crippling one of them).
"mentally ill loners" exactly how many of our shooters have been "mentally ill?" Several of them have been rather normal school kids (especially if you are familiar with the numbers of kids that have been caught bringing firearms to school.
Gun Control could mean stopping the legal sale of firearms at flea markets/ craig's list, online without background checks (ironically only works on "criminals") and waiting periods. Could mean training where a trainer could spot a mental imbalance (through vetting). Gun Control does not have to mean banning/forced removal. All things in moderation. But there is no guarantees in life. School's could be made more secure, magnetic locks, security cameras, hidden metal detectors, secured access, employee screening (to be a substitute in Tennessee requires a High School diploma and 1-2 days of training, a drug check and sometimes a background check)
(poster saying that guns are not the issue with Timothy McVeigh) you are comparing apples and oranges as a certain math teacher is prone to tell me. Timothy McVeigh was not insane or mentally unstable. What he did was strike back at a federal Government the only way he thought he knew how (Ruby Ridge, Waco, other federal messes). He is a terrorist- he blew up a building in an act of murder with specific motives but unspecific targets. The shooter from Friday and other school shootings acted with unspecific motives (other than the one I hear people say over and over again "kill them all and let God sort them out) and specific targets (like Friday) the violence was focused and the killings precise. If you are going to use the argument on Guns on this basis then you are generalizing every suicide bomber, every bomber, every terrorist, every killer and yet by the numbers - most of them used guns to do the killing. To date, I know of only 1 rampage in recent history that involved stabbing people with a knife
I am for gun control, not gun banning. I am for moderation. Some People believe they need guns mostly because they do not believe the police can or will protect them. Have no confidence in their fellows (neighbors, people in their immediate area). I personally am surrounded by fairly trigger happy neighbors. I spend some of my time praying they will shoot straight and not accidentally shoot me.
1 gunman or 2 or just 1 gunman with 2 guns?
How many are dead? No one except the Courant seems sure
How many wounded? 3 people may be in the hospital
1 teacher got shot in the foot
tweeting speculation abounds
panic abounds
can't wait to see what the NRA will say about this (will they be canceling the convention...unlikely since as we all know guns don't kill people, just people armed with highly efficient guns kill people without guns)
the confiscated weapons are a Glock standard clip: 15 to 17 rounds
sig sauer standard clip (depending on handgun model) 9-17 rounds
and a .223 carbine (m-16 style assualt rifle with acceration) luckly he didn't use it.
All I am asking for is some sanity, not Gmen to show up and demand that you hand over your guns. We could pretend to be as civilized as we claim to be and find a middle ground without going to extremes...since that appears to be what got us into these tragedies in the first place.
Again with another Ironic statement: Are our children our number one priority? As a Nation? if the answer is yes, then consider this (the irony) what do we as a nation/taxpayers spend the most on (as a country) per year?
"National Defense" Yep, billions and billions of dollars on guns, and tanks and drones oh my. Why do I bring this up? Because, if we spent even 2% of that budget on securing our schools we could probably guarantee the safety of every school in this country with armed trained security/police (heck special forces), better doors, better locks, better windows, better paid staff, school psychologists, better buildings, better parking, better training, better computers, better books, better food, better education. (I probably forgot something like body armor for students and teachers - again ironic since with all that money our soldiers don't even get that either).
that's all for now, life according to the speaker....sigh...damn

Turns out playing Halo 4 just kind of took over my life here recently.

That and the timing of my yearly sinus/respiratory Infection

So what was there to do but work my way through the Halo 4 campaign twice and 50 levels of Wargames/Spartan Ops.

Being sick and playing Halo 4 has actually worked well save that my blogging went to hell.

This is me leading Blue team to another successful victory over Griff and the rest of Red Team

I played the Campaign through on Heroic and then later on Legendary (Hard very hard)

One day I am going to be so good at this I won't die once.

At least without skulls on.

The Master Chief is an awesome character to play.

In someway he reminds me of the Beast. At an early age he is transformed into a monster and robbed of his humanity. Instead of giving into his inhumanity he finds order in his ability to survive/persevere and get the job done.

As is shown in the most recent edition of Halo, his humanity is pretty much lost entirely save for his lasting love for the AI Cortanna.

This picture says it all for me. Spartan Ops is coming and it is time for the Master Chief to get a makeover and kick some Covenant Butt.

Anyway, Spartan Ops is a new change to the first person campaign driven shooter game, offering a wide selection of input by the player into the game and promising an expansion of the game setting. It would be nice to see new (spartan Ops) only maps plus seeing some of the current ops make it into wargames.