Au Cochonnet Marin

Here we go again… Another mass shooting! Same old futile hand-wringing, ineffective speeches, and useless prayers…

After years of relentless bloodshed, we are still facing the same old problem. The unwillingness of American elected officials to ratify laws outlawing murderous killing machines.
The main and only obstacle for not banning assault weapons is MONEY.

Legislators are pressured (or rewarded) to vote against a bill that would stem the proliferation of guns in America. Whenever there is an effort to reduce the flow of weapons, money is changing hands and the initiative magically fails.

Some kind of “ectomy” (the surgical removal of some organ) needs to happen to resolve this problem; cephalectomy (the surgical removal of the head) seems like a good choice. The head of the Grand Dragon (NRA) has to be cut off and cauterized to stop this murderous madness.

We need to unmask the elected officials benefiting most from the largesse of the gun lobby. And then bring hundreds of reporters armed with microphones and cameras, and shame those venal mercenaries into forging a desperately needed amendment.

Asking everybody to surrender their guns is not realistic, but banning sales of automatic assault weapons is. Especially when it can be sold so easily to immature young men.

According to University of Rochester medical center, “the rational part of a teen’s brain isn’t fully developed and won’t be until age 25 or so.”

So let’s stop immature grownups from purchasing killing “toys”. Let’s stop anybody for that matter from obtaining highly automated killing machines. And let’s regulate the number of bullets sold to a single individual.

America is by far the country with the most guns (112.6 guns per 100 residents) and where it is so easily recklessly sold.

It can be done

Many countries around the world have successfully restricted the sale of guns.  It could be done in America as well.

Alain

What is the most popular sport in the world? Baseball, football, basketball, curling?
Wrong my unlettered friends!

“According to a FIFA survey, over 240 million people regularly play soccer in more than 200 countries, in every part of the world”, and the sport enjoys an estimated 4.0 billion (4,000,000,000) person following.

The 2018 World Cup final will be watched by an estimated 600 million people and yet, none of the Big Three American television networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) bothered to broadcast the games.

WTF? Too busy with POTUS antics?

Today, soccer is played in the most remote corners of the world and its popularity has never been so great. Even among women, who are making great strides to be recognized as the equals of male players.

Soccer is one of the most demanding sport in the world, requiring a lot of strength and stamina. A match is played in two 45-minute halves with a half-time period of 15 minutes. Basically, all the players run non-stop for 90 minutes with a very short break in between.
Useless to say that there are no chubby players in that discipline!

But what used to be a well-regulated sport has degenerated in some kind of grotesque wrestling contests.

While watching some of the matches on Fox or Telemundo, I was aghast by the tactics employed by some players. The Beautiful Game is now more like wrestling, with a series of tripping and body slams occurring every 5 minutes. And very few of these transgressions are penalized! Very regrettable!

The chances of injuries are high and many players leave the field on a stretcher. But the financial rewards and glory are so great that all players will risk it all to come on top.

Once you have made it to the finals, you become an iconic figure in your country, and if you happened to be on the winning team, you are demigods.

❤ ❤ ❤

If I had young children with a surplus of energy, I would definitely stir them to soccer instead of American football. It is somewhat safer and more strenuous in the long run than briefly trying to contain a massive offensive lineman.

Alain

Free lunches don’t come cheap. Charles Petzold

Ideally speaking it would be nice, once in a while, to be the beneficiary of a “free lunch”. But more often than not a “free” lunch proves to be more costly than a purchased meal.

Because let’s face it, “there is no such thing as a free lunch.” Soon or later, one way or the other, you will have to cough up for your “free” lunch.

Don Corleone: “Someday, and that day may never come, I’ll call upon you to do a service for me.”
Naturellement! What did you expect?

A free lunch offer is like bait. Enticing, tempting, easy to get, but with strings attached. Why do you think lobbyists ply you with such nice perks? Because they love you?

“Love is like a taxi fare, the further you go, the more dearly you will pay.”

Every action has a consequence just as every Yin has a Yang. A free lunch indebts you to your “benefactor”. And interest could be more costly than expected.

The best gifts are intangible…

The great gift of human beings is that we have the power of empathy. Meryl Streep

A hug might be more soothing than a fruitcake, or a piece of jewelry.

This does not mean that you should systematically refuse every lunch invitation. An invitation from a long-time friend is definitely more genuine that an invite from your local politico during elections time.

Always beware of the word “free”. It is a four-letter word. It is a lure, a decoy, a thing intended to tempt or entice you. When you hear that dirty word, turn around and run!

A free kiss is acceptable, as long as it is not binding. But beware; there nothing is more expensive than a free kiss from an alluring woman.

Genuine free hugs from you know whom!

Alain