Guns or No Guns: How about We use some Common Sense First?

I was about to start this blog post with a comment that I'm not usually political on my blogs, but looking back at the past few posts, I realize that I am much more political than I thought. I guess that I like to write about what is on my mind and I like discussing it with people.

Today, the subject I want to focus on is gun control. I am not going to be writing a piece about which side is better, I want to write and tell you all about the arguments that BOTH sides use that are flat out incorrect or they are cherry picking the data for their own use. It is a sin that is become so common in the TV, social media, and in normal conversation. People are choosing hyperbole and inflammatory language instead of common sense and reason (hence both Mister Trump and Senator Sanders are doing so well in the polls. They are beacons for their side of the inflammatory culture we have today).

I would ask those who are both pro and anti-gun is “what do you want to stop?” Violence or violence caused by guns? The reason I ask is that there is no causal data to show that lowering violence done by guns even lowers the violence overall (Farley). The United Kingdom has virtually no gun crimes in their nation BUT they are the highest for violent crimes and that statement is vague because the United States and the United Kingdom classify violent crime completely different (Bier).

Every study I found has shown that restricted gun ownership may lower the amount of violence done with guns, but it has little to no impact on violent crimes itself (Robertson). The National Research Council has said, "In summary, the committee concludes that existing research studies and data include a wealth of descriptive information on homicide, suicide, and firearms, but, because of the limitations of existing data and methods, do not credibly demonstrate a causal relationship between the ownership of firearms and the causes or prevention of criminal violence or suicide."(Wellford, Pepper, and Petrie 6).

The issue is not gun violence, or sexual violence, or child violence. It's violence, plain and simple. The pro and anti-gun proponents are like two firefighters arguing over if a hand held fire hose is more useful to fighting fires than one hooked in to the city system. Meanwhile, the house is burning to the ground. We need to focus on what is important. Violence and work on trying to curb it instead of tools that are used in their commission. You take away guns, people will still find ways to kill each other. Congratulations on lowering gun violence, but you still have yet to make a dent in the violence all around you.

Only when the two mindsets start looking at the preverbal fire and go, "We need to find a way to fight this" instead of fighting over which method is better at fighting, we are still going to have people dying. So, to anti-weapons and pro-weapons, please, stop arguing and work together.

Works Cited

Bier, Daniel. "By the Numbers: Is the UK Really 5 times more Violent than the US?" The Skeptical Libertarian. N.p., 12 Jan. 2013. Web. 12 Jan. 2016. <http://blog.skepticallibertarian.com/2013/01/12/fact-checking-ben-swann-is-the-uk-really-5-times-more-violent-than-the-us/>.

Farley, Robert. "Gun Rhetoric Vs. Gun Facts." FactCheck.org. N.p., 20 Dec. 2012. Web. 12 Jan. 2016. <http://www.factcheck.org/2012/12/gun-rhetoric-vs-gun-facts/>.

Robertson, Lori. "Gun Laws, Deaths and Crimes." FactCheck.org. N.p., 4 Oct. 2015. Web. 12 Jan. 2016. <http://www.factcheck.org/2015/10/gun-laws-deaths-and-crimes/>.

Wellford, Charles F, John Pepper, and Carol Petrie. "Executive Summary." Firearms and Violence: A Critical Review. 2nd ed. Washington: National Academies Press, 2005. 1-10. PDF File.

Meet the Villains

"She had always found villains more exciting than heroes. They had ambition, passion. They made the stories happen." Soman Chainani, The School for Good and Evil


Before I start I would like to thank Jonathan Snyder for allowing me to write a guest post on his blog. It's a great honor for me, and I hope you will enjoy this little excursion.


Villains are the spice of the stories we read, the movies we watch, the campfire legends we are told. But writing a villain is a really difficult thing to do! Why is that? For me personally it is, because I have a problem to identify with them. We meet people we can use as a blueprint for characters all the time, but how many villains do we meet to do the same?

We might know the one or other bitch or jerk, someone who makes your life hard, a poor misunderstood soul or someone who had a bad day. That is a good start. But usually when we meet them, it is a rather one-sided and subjective image we paint them in. What would make them an effective counterpart in a story?

I've been thinking and researching, talked with readers and authors and have compiled a small check-list that helps me to determine if my villain is someone I'd be interested in reading more about.

• One dimensional villains often get boring.
• To do evil just to do evil makes it hard to identify with them, which also can lead to disinterest in reading their parts. There are stories of course in which that is appropriate - use your best judgement.
• Villains need a motive. That ties in with the last item, but even if someone is evil to be evil, they have a reason for it. He it mentally, something in their past, a certain trigger etc.
• Nobody is born evil. Show what made this happen.
• Villains are people too. Sometimes we want to know more about them. Their life, their thoughts, the ins and outs. In some cases the villain is just a regular person, that nobody would suspect, so show that environment.
• Some readers also mentioned that they want to understand villains and why they do what they do. That ties in with some of the points I have mentioned.
• Make the villain believable. If s/he has special powers, make sure they fit in the setting. If they have super skills make sure to explain how they got them. They also make mistakes, don't be afraid to show that, it is a great tool for character building. Even a villain does not 'magically' know everything about the hero and their plan. They had to have time to research and plan. Where did they get their information from and so on.
• There is no black or white. Not everyone is only good or only evil. Actually that's a rarity. So sometimes you want to make your reader guess, or surprise them about who your villain is.
• When it comes to the Villain / Hero interaction there are two things that have been mentioned many times, which I personally find important as well:
• A villain who cannot be beat, gets frustrating. It is no fun for the reader to see that no matter what the hero does, they fail because the villain just is perfect and too strong. Make sure that there is a way to beat him at his game. He is fallible to and might make a small mistake, or a big one. Either way don't make him unbeatable.
• A villain who loses at the Hero's first attempt, is boring. He wouldn't be a good villain if he can't even hold out for that long. That just makes him a regular person who is not very smart.
• So a balance is important: Not too strong, not too weak. Enjoy some cat and mouse play between them, make it smart and interesting, but don't stretch it out too long or make it impossible to beat. If you plan on a re-occurring bad guy, let the hero have small victories and the villain learn from them. But in the end the bad guy should be beatable, unless you plan on a story that ends with the hero being the loser that is.

Some of these might make you wonder. Why should a villain be relatable or why should I understand them? Please note that every kind of story can have a different kind of villain to work with. For me personally there are a few types of villain that I enjoy to read about:

1. The kind of villain that makes me want to crawl into the story to beat the crap out of them.
2. The kind of villain, that makes me hate to hate them. Someone that I can relate to, understand and think 'But he had a good reason!' or 'It was a good cause'.
3. Someone who is like me, faced the same hardships or others that I can relate to.
4. The surprise villain. Someone I had not expected to be 'it', but when I think about it, it makes a lot of sense.

All of these are pretty vague and can be about anyone in any role in any kind of story. Different examples for villains I have found all over the net and the list varies depending on who writes it. Neither list is finished by any means, they can be pretty extensive. Tastes are different but pretty much everyone has this one thing in common:

Make the villain interesting!

I have some Questions about the Syrian Refugee Situation.

Politics. Boy, has this become much more of a mess and polarized than when I first started covering it so many years ago (like President George W. Bush's first term. A LONG time ago.) In a way, it seems that our representatives in both the house and the senate, plus our legislative branch have begun a war of worlds about what "they" want than following, what I would assume, is common sense. I wanted to focus on the whole immigration question that seems to have been filling facebook and the rest of the Internet.

The war against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria also known as ISIS or ISIL, the L being for Levant.  Originally a splinter group from al Qaeda (Yearout, 2014) that has become a much larger, well-known organization including its recent attack on Paris. (Callimachi, 2015, para.1)

Why do I bring this up? Well, I want you to understand one of the reaons behind the United States not wanting to accept Syrian refugees coming in to the country (Kingsley, 2015) and that even though it seems cruel and unjustifiable, there is a solid reason behind it (even if you do not like it).

Though the majority of politicians are using this as a political campaign, which also does not help the present situation, there is a legitimate threat that ISIS and their members might be using the refugee move from the Syrian civil war to cross in to other nations. (Lester, 2015, para. 16)

Yes, the U.S. government has a very strong vetting process being put in to place (Altman, 2015), but how do you run background checks of citizens of a country when the FBI has stated that it would be near impossible to do a thorough one? (Poole, 2015, para. 1)

Even with all this, President Obama decides to berate those people with concerns (AP, 2015) and I wonder if both sides are just choosing sides to irritate the other? Why have we not focused on trying to find a better way to bring them in?

Another issue, why are we bringing in refugees when there are other islamic countries, closer to their beliefs? Saudia Arabia has a complete empty camp ready for refugees and they stand empty!(McHugh, 2015) Europe is already collapsing because they cannot handle the onslaught of those looking for safety (Kingsley, 2015) and these countries, who by the Qoran calls them brothers, will not help. (Abdel, 2004, p. 439)(Kinninmont, 2015, para. 4) I'm not saying that we should block them on their religious beliefs, but I know many people who are far more comfortable around those who believe the same way.

Let's try to focus on the important parts, getting the true victims of this war in to our country and taking the necessary steps to protect us from those who would do us harm.

All my political posts have comments disabled because I refuse to allow trolls and others to start a political storm here just because they want to. If you want to discuss this, take the link and go to a forum that discusses politics. 

Works Cited

Abdel, H. M. "Common Kindnesses (Al-Maun)." The Qurʼan. 1st ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. 439. Adobe PDF.

Altman, A. "Syrian Refugees: Here's How the Screening Process Works." N.p., 17 Nov. 2015. Web. <http://time.com/4116619/syrian-refugees-screening-process/?xid=fbshare>.

AP. "Obama berates GOP over Syrian refugees - CBS News." N.p., 18 Nov. 2015. Web. 18 Nov. 2015. <http://www.cbsnews.com/news/obama-berates-gop-over-syrian-refugees/>.

Callimachi, R. "ISIS Claims Responsibility, Calling Paris Attacks are First of the Storm - The New York Times." N.p., 14 Nov. 2015. Web. 18 Nov. 2015. <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/15/world/europe/isis-claims-responsibility-for-paris-attacks-calling-them-miracles.html>.

Kingsley, P. "10 truths about Europe’s migrant crisis | UK news | The Guardian." N.p., 10 Aug. 2015. Web. 18 Nov. 2015. <http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/aug/10/10-truths-about-europes-refugee-crisis>.

Kinninmont, J. "Why Aren’t Gulf Countries Taking in Syrian Refugees? | Newsweek." N.p., 9 Sept. 2015. Web. 18 Nov. 2015. <http://www.newsweek.com/why-arent-gulf-countries-taking-syrian-refugees-370189>.

Lester, D. "FBI: Impossible to Do Background Checks On All Syrian Refugees - SamePageNation." N.p., 23 Oct. 2015. 
Web. 18 Nov. 2015. <http://samepagenation.com/2015/10/done-fbi-not-possible-background-checks-syrian-refugees/>.

McHugh, J. "Refugee Crisis 2015: Saudi Arabia Criticized For 100,000 Air Conditioned Tents Not In Use." N.p., 14 Sept. 2015. Web. 18 Nov. 2015. <http://www.ibtimes.com/refugee-crisis-2015-saudi-arabia-criticized-100000-air-conditioned-tents-not-use-2095403>.

Poole, P. "Homeland Security, FBI Can’t Get Story Straight on Screening Syrian Refugees : U.S. Congressman Louie Gohmert." N.p., 28 Oct. 2015. Web. <http://gohmert.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=398267>.

Yearout, K. "ISIS vs ISIL - what's the difference?" N.p., 11 Sept. 2014. Web. 18 Nov. 2015. <http://www.wcsh6.com/story/news/local/2014/09/10/isis-vs-isil-islamic-state-iraq-syria/15403133/>.

The Staff (Belaria Series #1) Review

The Staff (Belaria Series #1)

Science fiction and fantasy. They are the books that I like the most so when A.J. Chaudhury's Belaria Series came up for review, I was optimistic in trying it. To say the least, I was not disappointed. The first book of the series deals with the main character Charlz as he gets caught up in a conspiracy around the Staff of Belaria. I'm not going to go in to detail, but it is an exciting story filled with twists and turns like you would not believe. 

What stands out the best to me is how Mister Chadhury created a fantasy world the feels familiar, yet exotic thanks to the influence of his own country of India. The Staff is a great story to curl up by the fire with and read and an author to continue to pay attention to. 

Sra'Kalor (Ashwood Falls #1) Review

Sra'Kalor (Ashwood Falls #1)

I am not a big supernatural fantasy fan, but I have to say that I was very pleasantly surprised in what I found in those pages. A good friend of mine asked me to read her book and it turned out to be a great suggestion! Jessica Werner's Sra'Kralor, the first book in the Ashwood Falls series is a very interesting take on the supernatural creatures living in our world theme. It follows the story of Alana who has a mysterious ability that her family cannot deal with and when she turns eighteen, she is placed on a bus and sent to the nearby city of Ashwood Falls. If she thought her life could not get stranger, she would be in for a big surprise.

Jessica Werner has a very short way of saying things, but packs a lot of meaning in each word she chooses. Though English is not her first language, you can tell that Jessica is doing her best to capture her world in a foreign language. At times you can tell, but not enough to take away from the story. It is an adventure that any supernatural romance reader would love to add to their read lists and one you should not miss out on.

For those who have read the first release, I highly suggest giving the book a second try as it has become a great piece of writing!

Donald Trump - You Got to Be Kidding?

Alright, I kept telling myself that I was not really going to get in to politics this election because, honestly, the sheer amount of stupidity in this country has really made me re-think speaking up since the gut reaction of our present culture is to immediately troll or respond in a way that does not help the conversation or even prove their side. Most responses I have seen are the same kind of zealotry that would make terrorists go, "Whoa, a bit much, bro." I mean, that's not a good way to see it, but all those idiots out there make me tired.

So, what brought me out of this resolution? It should not surprise you, the stupidity of people! I keep hearing over and over again how Donald Trump is going to be the next, great President of the United States and I hope and pray that this is not the case. Why? Well, I'm going to tell you and it is your choice if you accept it or not.

The thing I want to address first is his immigration policy of no automatic citizenship for those born in the United States of illegal immigrants.  Though his website is vague, from his speeches, the idea is that if you are the child of an illegal immigrant and was born in the United States, you do not get automatic citizenship.("Immigration Reform") I wonder if people understand that supporting this violates the 14th amendment of the constitution, the constitution that people think he seems to support. He finally comes out with a statement of exactly what he wants to do as policy AND it violates the constitution. Good start to the race!

To quote, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."("14th Amendment")

One of the things that makes me really chuckle is that fact that people have gotten upset at President Barack Obama because he "lies" to the public. President Obama, granted, only has 21% true and 26% mostly true on the Political fact checking website, ("Brarack Obama's file") but the republican hopeful has 0% true and 5% mostly true.("Donald Trump's file")

Now, the thing that also upsets me and really makes me write this post is the fact on how his campaign is being run. Americans are frustrated at a lot of the things in the government and I'm honestly worried that people are looking in Mister Trump's direction because he is pretty much saying everything that we've been thinking. Do you really want a President who chooses to attack and bully people who do not agree with him? Do you really think the rest of the Congress is going to just stand up and welcome him? Mister Trump is a much worse choice than President Obama. Our President is idealistic and he was inexperienced when he first started out as a President. I do not agree with a lot of what he did, but he tried. Donald Trump is a troll who is trying to get to the presidency to implement his own personal agenda in a way that is reminiscent of a shotgun being pointed in the general direction of the problem and not caring who gets hurt. Yes, he does have some ideas that would help our country, but I fear how he would implement it if his view of our Constitution is that it is something to get around or ignore completely. The constitution has been ignored enough, we need a candidate who is going to try to get best of both worlds and is willing to work with both sides of the congress, not just follow the ideals of just his party. We need compromise and discussion in our government again. Without it, we are going to get people like Trump which will simply be yet another nail in our country's coffin.

P.S. All my political posts have comments disabled because I refuse to allow trolls and others to start a political storm here just because they want to. If you want to discuss this, take the link and go to a forum that discusses politics. 

References


"14th Amendment." 14th Amendment. Web. 28 Aug. 2015. <https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxiv>.


"Barack Obama's File." Barack Obama's File. Web. 28 Aug. 2015. <http://www.politifact.com/personalities/barack-obama/>.


"Donald Trump's File." Donald Trump's File. Web. 28 Aug. 2015. <http://www.politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/>.


"Immigration Reform." Immigration Reform. Web. 28 Aug. 2015. <https://www.donaldjtrump.com/positions/immigration-reform>.

2014: Conceal Carry And Missouri

The successful override of Governor Jay Nixon’s veto for Bill 656 submitted by Senator Will Karus (D) has many gun owners and second amendment activists happy with the changes to the concealed carry laws that Missouri Senate Bill 656 enacts. It has been a long fought battle between both the Republicans and Democrats that has public opinion polarized.

Some of the biggest changes the bill enacts is that it authorizes volunteers in public school to become School Protection Officers.

“SB 656 actually strengthens accountability for guns in classrooms,” Sen. Will Kraus, the sponsor of the bill said in regards to the bill's passing. “Current law allows school districts to waive a ban on concealed carry in schools for individuals, and at least one district has done so. Now, any teacher designated a School Protection Officer (SPO) will need to undergo 12 hours of training, and twelve additional hours annually. Each school district will decide whether to use SPOs or not.”

It also allows Missourians possessing a valid Concealed Carry permit to utilize open carry in any part of the state no matter the local ordinances.

SB656 also changes other aspects of the state’s firearms law, was also lowering the age for a permit from twenty-one to nineteen and forbids any law that would allow medical personnel to ask if there is a gun in the household and responding to any answer to that question.

            Though there is concern among some organizations at the thought of the state allowing teenagers to open carry firearms, many believe the problem to be more hyperbole than an actual issue. The state Senate and Congress overrode Governor Nixon felt the law took everything in to consideration as the House vote was one hundred and seventeen to thirty-nine and the Senate twenty-three to eight.

            “I think it is great that other states are doing what is right, which is to protect kids, rather than doing what is politically correct,” Rep. Rick Brattin (R) said in regards to the bill.

            “When you are going through that level of training, you shouldn’t be shooting yourself in the foot. We can’t legislate ‘what if’s in every scenario, but I look at it as [these teachers] are receiving the same level of firearms training as a police officer. How many police officers do you hear of shooting themselves in the foot?” Brattin also said in regards to the type of training the SPOs would be getting.

One of the largest concerns about the new law though is not the changes to the concealed carry permit itself, but to the School Protection Officer position. The law allowed the school to keep the identity of the person who is acting as the SPO from being released to the parents and some parents do not like the idea not knowing who will be the one armed in the school.

Melissa Brooks, a member of the Missouri chapter of Moms Demand Action group, said in an interview, “Reasonable people have differing opinions when it comes to guns— but I think all Missourians can agree that as parents, we have the right to know if there is going to be a gun in our kid’s classrooms."

In the end, the Missouri law is a step towards not only re-affirming the states belief in the second amendment, but also showing solidarity towards that goal by writing and passing legislation to support the constitutional amendment.

The last test of this law will be if anyone attempts to challenge the law through the Missouri courts, but so far there has been no indication of any such activity. If the law does face the courts and survives, it will show not only the dedication of the Missouri government in protection second amendment freedoms, but also give a precedence for other second amendment states to move ahead with their legislation.