Sandy Hook: Are Gun Makers Responsible?

Let me start by saying that that the tragedy and shooting at Sandy Hook was a tragedy. It was horrible, gut wrenching, heartbreaking and the pain it caused for those families is unimaginable. As a parent, and grandmother of a first grader, just hearing about that day again is … gut twisting. Those poor babies. Those families.

I understand the need to want justice, to see someone pay for the tragedy. I would want that too. I’d be screaming out with every ounce of my agony.  After all, Adam Lanza is dead, he won’t pay the price. Somebody must … pay, but the gun manufacturer? That’s not the one. It just doesn’t make sense that a) A lawsuit was filed against them, and b) a judge is allowing it to go forward.

It would be like suing Lanza’s father for creating him. Even that makes much more sense of the gun manufacturer.

 For the life of me, and I wish someone would explain the legal logic, how is the gun manufacturer responsible. Please. I’m not being sarcastic, I need to know how.

The gun shop owner, I can sort of see the logic, (I believe there is a suit there) But the manufacturer, the ones that make the guns. How are they libel for the person who shoots it.

Now someone said to be that guns are manufactured with the knowledge that they kill. So are hunting knives.

If the families want justice, what about going after Yale Mental Health for not reporting the mother to the state when she refused help for her son. Help, Yale states was needed, years before the murders. Their repeated recommendation went ignored. Yet, if a pediatrician tells a mother that she is harming her child by over feeding, he is within his rights to turn her over to authorities. Why didn’t this apply with Lanza?

While I realize it is a privacy issue, revealing mental illness and all, but unfortunately it needs to be done. Remember guns may be licensed to an individual, but they ultimately go to a household where anyone in that house has access.

The horror of Sandy Hook built to its explosive and horrific end. The child with mental problems so severe, institutionalization was recommended, the mother who ignored that advice, the medical officials who didn’t follow through, the mother that purchased the guns knowing damn well her kid had issues, and the kid who committed such an incomprehensible crime, it makes you sick to think about it.

All of it played a part in that fateful December day. There are so many pieces to blame, but in my opinion, not one of them is the gun manufacturer. Maybe it’s my ignorance, or I am missing something, I don’t know. Perhaps someone can explain.

Where's Donald Trump: Quitting or regrouping

I opened up the CNN page today, and it wasn’t what I saw, it was what I did not see. For the first time and I could not tell you in how long, Donald Trump did not dominate the page. In fact, I was greeted with the murder story. That was the headline not Donald Trump.

Huh?

Since the Wisconsin primary pretty much Donald Trump has not been on the front pages. We’ve heard about him. Speculation. But after his weird and tantrum like concession tweet following a Wisconsin loss, Donald Trump has disappeared.

Now, he’s out there. And he’s in New York. That makes zero sense. He pretty much has New York locked up and in a bag. So why would he leave the trail, cancel California and Colorado, and just go home? In fact, news reports that his first rally in his home state was lackluster. Not the crowds, but Donald himself.

Gone are the ranting tweets at 2 AM, gone are the retweets. It’s almost as if someone said to him, “Stop. You really want this?  Just stop. “

There’s speculation that he’s regrouping. Amongst people I know, even Donald supporters, there is concern he’s going to drop out. There’s talk of that. I don’t buy it.

He has gotten himself a new, as he calls it, convention manager. A veteran on campaigns. It could be that this veteran is whispering in Donald’s ear.

Let's face it, the Donald has had some missteps recently. A lot of them. Including the Corey Lewandowski deal.  No matter how much Donald wants to stand beside him it’s not looking good. He boasted that he would not fire Cory, he didn’t, he just hired somebody to kind of take over and push Corey to the background.

Again I don’t think it’s regrouping, or rethinking. To me, it’s business.

It is odd for me to write a pro Trump blog. But in actuality it’s not pro Trump it’s reality check to all those who are second-guessing. To the never Trump people that are hoping he really is dropping out.

Reality is Donald Trump is a businessman. He runs his businesses. He is top-of-the-line. And then he goes on this campaign trail. All well and fine, he can run his businesses from the trail, but is not going to do it the way he did before. Increasingly with the schedules, rallies, inundated news coverage. Trump cannot do his business the way he did it before. He entrusts others, and anyone that has ran their own business knows, there’s only so much trust you can give someone whether they are related to or not.

No one will run your own business the way you will.

Donald is finding that out.

Anyone that is stepping  back or taking time off or lax on their work of their own business, knows it tallies up. There’s stuff that people don’t do or don’t do correctly.

Things begin to slip, revenues drop, it gets to a crisis and if you don’t do it yourself, you won’t have it when you’re done with whatever is distracting you.

Trump has entrusted his children. These are the same children whose father is running for president, and didn’t register to vote. If they couldn’t do something so simple as registering to vote for their father, how are they running his business. One of them just had a baby. It’s not getting done.

So Trump, seeing his businesses fail, not that they are, but they need his attention. Decided this was the best time ever. He hit a sacrifice fly with Colorado, and went home. Trump could actually retreat and not even step out his front door for the next couple weeks. He has New York wrapped up. Barring some unforeseen circumstances, where he blunders big time, or commits some heinous crime, he’s going to win New York. That is where Trump is. Fixing his business. We will not hear much from Trump until after the New York primary. A rally here and there, but nothing non stop like before. And then he will go back on the trail full force.

My question is, people like winners, will it be a little too late,. Will Trump step back too much that  this will be detrimental to him. If Trump emerges after New York he will not emerge the same, he is going to have a new manager, and he will present a different persona. Quite, less ranting tweets, nothing over the top. Will that last, we don’t know. A new presidential Trump will, and can absorb into the masses,  with nothing to make him stand out. Truth be told his brash nature  and antics put him in the notable lane. Without them is he Trump? Under the new improved circumstances, would Trump be able to ride this train at the same speed he has done before.

I doubt it. We will find out.

This is been the best election season ever.

When Parents need you

Our entire lives, especially when we are young, we hear stories about people that have to take care of their aging parents. We express our sympathy, but there's no way we could feel empathetic about it until we are in that position.

When we were in our 20s we may have even have witnessed our parents taking care of their own parents. Worrying about them, finding medical care, back and forth to the hospital. We understand it, we care, but really, we didn't get it.

See, the thing that no one ever tells you when you're 25 years old is, the older you get, yeah your parents get older, but they don't seem as old to you as it did when you were 20. The older I got the younger my mother seemed. She seems vital more different than my own grandmother at 75 years old. Of course my own grandmother didn't live to see 75 and her mother didn't live to see 70. I remember my great-grandmother at 65 she had severe dementia.

My own grandmother was in control of her mental faculties up until the day she died.

My mother in her 70s is strong or rather was strong. One day she was complaining that my brother was nothing but a whore while cooking a big dinner, and the next, she's hours from death. A flip a coin. That fast. Reality check.

We see it, but we have a hard time believing it. After all, the parent struggling for their life and that bed was just fine the day before, so there os no reason to believe they won't bounce back. And do so rather quickly. Again, they were healthy 24 hours earlier.

Something happens when were older, something breaks and it's not easily repaired. Like that  old trusty washing machine that you've had for 25 years. You know you keep replacing belts, or fixing this and that, eventually it will go. That is the human body. No matter how hard we wish for it to stay good, it starts to fail. Another reality we must face.

Because we do not want to accept that our parents cannot be 100% where they were, we optimistically visit them. Hoping that each day we walk in that they are better. While they do get better it's not at the pace we want. Days turn into weeks and soon weeks later, we find out that parent needs a little more help than we expected.

It has got to be the most frustrating thing for my mother. I feel for her. It took a while for her to get back to her mental state, almost 3 weeks. Her body just isn't catching up. There are six of us siblings. Each of us trying to cover 24 hour period or as much as we can so she's not alone. It wears us down. Those of us to have the luxury of working from home are those of us who bear the responsibility of taking more shifts. I suppose it's just as difficult on those who working 9-to-5 job. They get up, to go to work, they can go home, change their clothes, go to the hospital, go to bed, repeat. But they go to work. For us that work at home, like me, we go back and forth, deal with things during our work time. Work piles up, when we get home we don't feel like working. Therefore placing us under a hunugnsou pile that we have no idea of how that we cannot dig ourselves out .

I suppose this blog isn't about solutions, not yet, it is about frustration and hardship. If I would offer solutions anyone facing a parent in a hospital waiting for them to get well I'm moving to the next step before they come home, it would be to work together. Keep yourself strong so they can be strong

The last thing you want is for your parents to see that you are struggling. Either physically or emotionally.

My mother is getting out of the hospital after weeks, but she has to go to a skilled care for a few more weeks. After that, she will come to my house, which will begin a whole new way of life for me.

Nine Reasons Why Walking Dead Jumped the Shark in S6

While many may disagree with me, I am going to go on record as saying Walking Dead jumped the shark in Season six. Gimble is Richie Cunningham and Kirkman is the Fonz. Jumped the shark.  Instead of my ranting in a big opening paragraph, I decided to make the list. Here it is. My nine reasons and moments I believe contributed to Walking Dead jumping the shark in Season Six.

WARNING CONTAINS SPOILERS

The Glen Dead Fake Out

So Glen gets blasted with the blood of Nick, falls off the dumpster and we watch as it looks like he’s torn apart by zombies. Was there anyone who actually bought that? If they did, surely after we saw nothing for three episodes they knew he wasn’t dead. What was the point in that?

Bound by the comics and limited in imagination

It is no secret that for some unknown reasons they cater to the graphic novel fans, inadvertently isolating those who do not read the comics. They cater so much, that any deviation is so slight, there is no surprise. Hell, who needs to watch the show when there’s a big fat bunch of books telling you exactly what happens. Kirkman has his chance to right his wrong, to make up for things he regretted in the books. But he backs off, I think because they won’t let him. Hey AMC, they are graphic novels, not storyboards, no need to follow frame by frame.

Traded Shock and ‘awwww’ for Shock and ‘oh, ok’

Remember the good old days when we didn’t see it coming? Dale died and we cried? Hershel got it and we screamed. The won with the first fake out (Judith) and never went back. Now they follow a formula. Introduce a character, feature them in an episode and kill them at the end of the episode. Or kill them in a way we squirm, like having a kids head bit off. They won’t kill main characters anymore. Main cast is safe.  More than likely the Lucille killing will either be a lesser grade character. The brutal beating is the ‘shock’, no sad ‘awww’

Fire them all

The writing is sub par. It’s lazy and relies on a prewritten outline in the form of graphic novels. Been there done that. They are all so full of themselves, they need fired. I REFUSE to believe someone as talented as Kirkman has a say so in the writing. And Greg Nictero. Seriously, Dude, cut the hair.

They haven’t killed Daryl Physically

Why is Norman Reedus so protected. I understood in Seasons one and two, possibly parts of three. But the last few seasons he has become nothing but an aging man, who needs a haircut and a bath. He has no purpose in the show. His character is no longer fun to watch. Might as well kill him off since his character died long ago.

Season Six Finale

It was ninety minutes of watching “Wheels on the RV go round and round’. A game of cat and mouse interlaced with okay scenes of Morgan and Carol. I would have rather of watched them more. But instead it was the same stupid story, take this road, blocked. They had other story lines. I mean, Daryl’s blood splattered on the scene at the end of Fifteen for goodness sakes. Yet, we see nothing, hear nothing until the end of the nine minutes. What happened to him? Where was he shot.  Let’s face it AMC let those spoilers out early (Something they never do) because they knew the finale would be a bust.

The Cliffhanger Ending

I’m not talking about it being a cliffhanger, I am talking about the way they did it. Good god, if they want to keep us in suspense about who gets the bat, can they at least make it look decent. What was up with those bad, Microsoft Paint blood rolls on the screen layover. Did they run out of money?

They have no idea who gets the bat

The packing of the RV was lame. All to what? Give us more people to guess about for six months? Adding more credence to the fact they will bat off a lesser known. Everyone had a reason for being in the RV. Abe and Sasha, I get it. Aaron? He said, “I owe her”, what did I miss. And why in the world would Rick have Carl in the RV? Knowing the Saviors were out there? Fr. Gabe has proven himself chump more than champ. I’d trust Carl with the Judith. If they do get balls and kill of Glen or Daryl, they’ll open Season seven with Daryl getting shot. Doing their time lapse thing there. But they don’t know. Not yet.

Negan

The Graphic Novels fans have been waiting for him. Salivating over his arrival. He is supposed to be the worst, the worst of the worst. Someone so evil he made cocky Rick into a trembling fool. I didn’t get it. Yeah, Rick was scared, but of what? So, that was Negan? I saw a skinny, pretty boy, over acting in designer pants. Yeah, he was skinny, the bulky coat was an illusion. He carried a bat. He said, “Pee Pee City.” For real? Oooooh, thems scary words. What the hell kind of villain says, “Pee Pee City.” And it makes the hero tremble. I got so damn annoyed with the nine minute, over the top monologue, I was shouting at the screen, “Hit someone already.” Again, trying to stay true to the comic was a fail here. The Novel readers may have loved Pee Pee City, but some of us thought it was ridiculous. Nine minutes. Enough.

And that’s it. Jumped the Shark. If they want to take it all back, toss out the comics and start fresh. New ideas.  Surprise the viewers instead of giving them a visual of what they read.

10 Cloverfield Lane: A Review

Let me start by saying, “I love John Goodman.” That alone will tell you my mindset going into this film.

So, as I usually do, I give warning.

WARNING. May contain Spoilers.

You’ve been warned. Here we go.

Being a late night movie goer it is tough to get a viewing companion so I went to this one alone. I really didn’t know what to expect, except that I heard it had something to do with the movie Cloverfield and it had John Goodman. That was all I knew. I went to seek reviews, and when I saw a review title, ‘Go to the movie first, don’t spoil it by reviews.’ I paid attention.

Now … that reviewer was wrong. He insinuated that by reading a review it would ruin this HUGE surprise ending that no one is supposed to see coming. Okay, unless you lived under a movie rock, you’ll know the ending to this one. Although the teenagers I spoke to after the movie lived under a rock. They came out saying, “Dude, I didn’t see it coming.”

Really? Really.

“Did you see the movie Cloverfield?”

“Yes.”

“Then how did you not see it coming? Notice the movie title?”

“Ooooooh.”

But rest assured the movie is not about what is happening to the world, it is about human nature, trust and what happens in this really cool decked out bomb shelter.

Howard is a navy veteran. A survivalist with a keen sense of seeing what is coming. He’s divorced and we learn that his wife took off with his daughter whom he adored. Howard is played by Goodman.

Michelle is running from her relationship problems, in a dick move she packs up and leaves her boyfriend. While on the run, she is in an automobile accident and is rescued by Howard. When she wakes up, he tells her the world has ended.

She of course, doesn’t believe him. Which sets the tone for the movie. Is Howard lying and just a kidnapper or did the world really end. Now any attempt by JJ Abrams to confuse the audience, keep them guessing, is tossed out the window about thirty minutes into the movie. Unless you’re thick, dense or in the bathroom, the ‘I never seen it coming’ ending is pretty much given away there. Hell, it’s given away in the preview.

What you see in the preview is what you get in the movie. Although it has some good comedy moments, tense moments and ultra cool monologues with great music.

Did I like it? Yes.

It’s The Divide meets Misery. No kidding. It is.

Should you go see it at the movies? Yes for the visual effects. But don’t go alone. It is one of those movies you really want to discuss with someone afterward.

For example …. My big question still is, what the hell did the daughter have to do with the story line.

10 Cloverfield is certainly one I will own on digital Download. I’d say DVD, but does anyone really buy them anymore?