The Olympics Anyone?

15 Feb 18
06:05 hrs.

     Some people are all pumped up about the Olympics. Some are not. Here at the Wayward Inn, I am slow to catch that Olympic Fever but I am a starting to catch it now. The individual sports and the small team events are always great to watch in any Olympic competition where the training and skill of the individual shines through like a beacon. It was in the larger team sports that soured my Olympic viewing. Years ago the Olympics was for amateur athletes only. Once you were paid to participate in that sport you were a professional athlete and you wete no longer eligible to participate in The O-Games. The former Soviet Union's Red Army hockey team got around this rule by publicly stating the team members were all "paid as members of the army" who just happened to play hockey. Everyone knew that this was bullshit but little could be done. Somewhere along the line the IOC gave permission for recognizable professional athletes to enter the Olympics especially when the You-alls pushed forward their "Dream Team" in hockey and basketball.

     BULLSHIT!

     Reality came in the last couple of years when widespread doping by the Russian Olympic teams was proven to the world which lead to a total ban of the Russian Olympic Team. Individual athletes from Russia are allowed to compete but they do so under the Olympic flag.

     All of this has has been in the news so unless you have been living under a rock you should be aware of this. Another news item ypu should be aware of is the latest shooting in the Hugh-Ess. A former disgruntled student in Florida was able to legally purchase an assault rifle with no wait and no background check. He entered his former high school, pulled the fire alarm and started shooting. Seventeen people dead. Oh, he was an adopted troubled youth.

     BULLSHIT! GIVE HIM THE CHAIR!

     From the news feed the FBI were aware from Facebook posts from someone with his name that this was going to happen. From what I've learned thus far local authorities did nothing. They should be held accountable as well. The question remains when will the Hugh-Ess government wade in and try to prevent this sort of domestic terrorism violence. In 2018 there has been more than two dozen school shootings already. That's one every two days and since the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012 there have been 273 schools have been shot up.

     How many more innocent lives have to be lost?   Real change will never happen as long as the gun culture is addressed. Of weapons known to be legally licenced there are 101 weapons for every 100 persons in the Hugh-Ess. In Japan, the ratio is something like .23 weapons for every 100 persons. It takes six months and a mountain of paperwork just to buy a shotgun and last year there were six deaths attributed to gun violence.

     Six! That's all.

     Something to think about.

     Here's another thing to think about. A member of the gun lobby wrote a report for the ATF on the need to reduce the amount of restrictions on acquiring/owning firearms. Of course he did.

     This just in...

     The Tangerine Tyrant says he will find a way to make schools safer but did not mention gun control in his speech. Go figure. After the Sandy Hook shooting the NRA stated lives would have been saved if "the teachers were armed".

     Inanity at its best.