I wrote this article more than a year & a half ago and it remains relevant. (More so by the revelation of Overseas Governments' subversive investments in NRA operations).
--------

Gun ownership will always be a part of our heritage and it is impossible to imagine a future where this unique American privilege would cease to remain at least a limited protected right under the federal constitution.

That said, responsible gun owners no longer need membership in an association that fails to  represent their best interests. The NRA was historically founded on safety, but now it seems only to represent the distribution of blood money.  Florida massacre survivors are now stridently rising up to create change.  They make the ultimate demand of every American and especially you --  yes you, NRA member.

They are in your face and in public and challenging you to look in the mirror and/or the eyes of your family and friends to answer this question:

 "Are the blood money dues you pay to the NRA worth it?"

U.S. gun ownership

Statistically gun ownership, per se, is not the primary cause of the massacres becoming a routine part of American life.  What increasing numbers of millennial youth have expressed so clearly is, it is the unrestricted "weapons-of-war" owned overwhelmingly only by about 3% of the total American population that are causing these massacres.  Look at the chart.

How does a small group of outliers (in red) dictate the safety of every single American  citizen, immigrant and tourist?  Because along with the gun and bullet manufacturers they are part of a vocal minority proferring a ridiculous narrative that domestic weapons-of-war are a guaranteed right under the US constitution.  This message is madness amplified by an association that is out-of-control,  the anonymity of social media messaging AND the recent revelation foreign actors are providing financing designed to influence us through automated "social bots" all for the express purpose to sow disruption in our society and murder citizens.  This is not patriotic.

The equation is simple. The NRA, its members and supporters provide the blood money ... leaders, politicians and even supposed corporate citizens accept it -- while literally tens of thousands die in the transaction. Enough is enough.

To own a gun and be a patriot... all without blood on your hands -- just wash your hands of the NRA.

I wrote this blog article more than an year and a half ago -- it remains relevant.

Biathlon competition

I don't own a gun. I have gone to target practice twice in my lifetime with friends and have enjoyed some competitive entertainment.  Rifles are cool, so are shotguns, and even accurate target pistols.  Hell even the Olympic Biathlon, a sking and target shooting competition,  is a well respected sport. (BTW they shoot specially modified small barrel. single shot .22 target rifles. Not high-caliber, semi-automatic killing machines.)

Yet the time is now for the sensible majority of gun owners to take steps to form an alternative gun association to represent their interests -- safety over blood money.

Let a safe, sane and new American way prevail free from corruption, greed and the blood of our friends, brothers, sisters and children.  Do the right thing-- cancel your membership now:  tear up your membership card, burn it, use it for target practice, flush it down the toilet, make a video of it and proudly share your courage on social media.

It is not patriotic to belong to the NRA, nor to support any politician or business who betrays the public trust on this association's behalf.

This is after all still a democracy and the majority can take control for responsible gun ownership, simple registration, reasonable background checks, safety training and insurance -- just like with automobiles.

What will you do to wake-up tomorrow with clean hands?

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Generation-M Battle Cry is Heard from Coast-to-Coast

Emma Gonzalez is now a tragically unwitting but instinctively keen leader for a new generation of millennials (generation-M) who have found a voice and are making a difference just days after the Parkland school shooting.  

This is what truth to power looks like

Emma Gonzalez 

Barely a beat passed after the terrible mass shooting in Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School before Emma and a group of her fellow survivors found courage to step-up to face reporters and a nation with tears in their eyes and ask the simple yet obvious question -- WHY?   

Why are we being ignored by the generations that came before us?  Why are these weapons still being sold?  And their demands were just as clear and articulate. The status quo with gun control was unacceptable and that this must never happen again.  (Twitter: #neveragain)

This time, unlike in virtually all previous gun massacres perpetrated by automatic weapons and expanded bullet clips, the survivors and victims are being heard by the media and public. Their message is resonating coast-to-coast and real change is beginning to follow.

Here is some of the recent results of their activism:

• Scores of well known corporations have cut business ties with the NRA
• Dick's Sporting Goods' CEO CNN Interview with Dick's CEO, Edward Stack announcing the company is immediately instituting major changes including banning sales of automatic weapons, extended bullet clips, and raising the purchasing age to 21.  Walmart is following suit with some similar announcements.
• AR-15s and bump-stocks were recently banned at the DuPage Sportsman Show held in Illinois along with the cancellation of a raffle for a gun, 
• Youtube video gone viral of NRA member sawing his automatic AR-15 weapon in half
• Reports of investors pulling away from gun manufacturers
• Politicians in Washington for the first time are starting open conversations on gun laws

What has changed the environment?  Primarily the tone of the conversation. These brave young students have turned their grief and anger into a no-nonsense, kicking ass and taking names style of confronting leaders and politicians who have been sitting on their hands for far too long. 

One thing for sure that is new is their use of plain speak.  No coded words. A new vocabulary is emerging that is not getting lost in the weeds over discussions of "the 37 technical definitions of what is, and what is not an automatic firearm". They simply and articulately call the firearms -- weapons-of-war.

Also, unlike the media and journalists should be doing, they are confronting leaders and law makers with the facts and in one-on-one situations asking hard questions like:  Was the blood-money you took from the NRA and others worth the carnage?   They are demanding black and white answers from leaders on where they stand, and are making it clear that those who wink-wink, nod-nod, take bribes, donations, and lobbyist contributions of blood-money and/or support of the NRA, are now outcasts with society and especially the emerging voting block they are leading.

The NRA and its minions are failing this time to make this public outrage fade away. Their decades old playbook of attacking the victims, calling them names, insulting their intelligence, changing the topic and creating conspiracy theories isn't working. These bright young students are calling out the BS.  

Bullets kill people.

Seriously, this movement is not going away. This is due in part because it is the coming of age of a new generation -- they are exerting their energy, influence and passion with a technological savvy survivors and victims of past massacres did not have available to them. Emma Gonzalez is now reported to have twice as many social media followers as the NRA.

This group is literally the first voice and first voters of those who were born in 2000 and after. They are Generation-M and their activism is off to a great start.  These are the people who are going to lead change in this world - perhaps save it.  It is time to move out the law makers who are working against the will of the majority.  Here is where you and I can help.

Send a postcard to Emma Gonzalez to support their efforts.

Unfortunately these young survivors turned activists are actually getting death threats -- do you think they are a little scared right now of their progress? So what we can do is to get behind them in force and encourage them to continue the work they have started?

Mail your post cards now to:

Emma González and survivors

Marjory Stoneman Douglas HS

5901 NW Pine Island Road

Parkland, FL 33076

Let's do something tangible and let them see the support they have around the country... let them know the majority has their back. Send them a post card. Flood them with thousands of postcards so they can carry them with them when they go on through their mission.

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It's Time for America to Surrender its Domestic Weapons-of-War
Start a Sprint this Year
Begin it now
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It's Time for America to Surrender its Domestic Weapons-of-War... especially now, given reports of the World's Terrorist nations' financial support of the NRA

I wrote this article more than a year & a half ago and it remains relevant. (More so by the revelation of Overseas Government's subversive investments in NRA operations).
--------

Gun ownership will always be a part of our heritage and it is impossible to imagine a future where this unique American privilege would cease to remain at least a limited protected right under the federal constitution.

That said, responsible gun owners no longer need membership in an association that fails to  represent their best interests. The NRA was historically founded on safety, but now it seems only to represent the distribution of blood money.  Florida massacre survivors are now stridently rising up to create change.  They make the ultimate demand of every American and especially you --  yes you, NRA member.

They are in your face and in public and challenging you to look in the mirror and/or the eyes of your family and friends to answer this question:

 "Are the blood money dues you pay to the NRA worth it?"

U.S. gun ownership

Statistically gun ownership, per se, is not the primary cause of the massacres becoming a routine part of American life.  What increasing numbers of millennial youth have expressed so clearly is, it is the unrestricted "weapons-of-war" owned overwhelmingly only by about 3% of the total American population that are causing these massacres.  Look at the chart.

How does a small group of outliers (in red) dictate the safety of every single American  citizen, immigrant and tourist?  Because along with the gun and bullet manufacturers they are part of a vocal minority proferring a ridiculous narrative that domestic weapons-of-war are a guaranteed right under the US constitution.  This message is madness amplified by an association that is out-of-control,  the anonymity of social media messaging AND the recent revelation foreign actors are providing financing designed to influence us through automated "social bots" all for the express purpose to sow disruption in our society and murder citizens.  This is not patriotic.

The equation is simple. The NRA, its members and supporters provide the blood money ... leaders, politicians and even supposed corporate citizens accept it -- while literally tens of thousands die in the transaction. Enough is enough.

To own a gun and be a patriot... all without blood on your hands -- just wash your hands of the NRA.

Biathlon competition

I don't own a gun. I have gone to target practice twice in my lifetime with friends and have enjoyed some competitive entertainment.  Rifles are cool, so are shotguns, and even accurate target pistols.  Hell even the Olympic Biathlon, a sking and target shooting competition,  is a well respected sport. (BTW they shoot specially modified small barrel. single shot .22 target rifles. Not high-caliber, semi-automatic killing machines.)

Yet the time is now for the sensible majority of gun owners to take steps to form an alternative gun association to represent their interests -- safety over blood money.

Let a safe, sane and new American way prevail free from corruption, greed and the blood of our friends, brothers, sisters and children.  Do the right thing-- cancel your membership now:  tear up your membership card, burn it, use it for target practice, flush it down the toilet, make a video of it and proudly share your courage on social media.

It is not patriotic to belong to the NRA, nor to support any politician or business who betrays the public trust on this association's behalf.

This is after all still a democracy and the majority can take control for responsible gun ownership, simple registration, reasonable background checks, safety training and insurance -- just like with automobiles.

What will you do to wake-up tomorrow with clean hands?

Other Articles

Start a Sprint this Year
Begin it now
Motivating a Team of One
We Can Fix Stupid
Keep Us in the Dark

     

Start a Sprint This Year

It's a new year and time for resolutions and a new approach. And what happened to last year's batch?  Somewhere during the year we just quit.

Overwhelmed, distracted, engaged, and depressed, life just happens. Frequently we fall down in our efforts to make a change in our lives.  It is hard to get back up again and return to chasing our goals after even a minor set-back.

Soon we wake up, stare in the mirror, know what needs to be done but can't even start.  The clock ticks, calendar pages turn and soon years go by without progress.  Why?

Mostly it's because we take on more than we can chew or shoot too high.  Our goals and tasks are doomed from the start because they are often unrealistic or seem too overwhelming.

Here is one way to improve your chances for success -- try a sprint.  A sprint is a short fast burst, or running at full speed for a short distance.

I first encountered this idea from the head of sales for a financial company.  He had this notion that the field sales force could compete with each other more effectively on short sprints for rewards.  The concept was that people could really go all out, extend themselves, reach new heights, if the time period was shortened to a few weeks (instead of year long).  We worked together to put together a series of short contests with ambitious goals, and at least to my surprise -- it worked.  It ended in a year that broke through all the forecasts.

The point is to create intermediate benchmarks for your destination that you can likely reach in a time-frame that ensures success. Can you sprint at full speed for a month?  Ten days?  Forty-eight hours?  When you succeed, reward yourself and get ready to start again with confidence at your back.

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Begin It Now

Hesitation is an insidious disease of the human mind that inhibits change.

For me, it is a voice that interrupts the silence of focused reasoning and purposeful intent with an unwelcome dialogue of doubt and fear. It causes delay that sadly leaves words unspoken, works unformed, relationships unjoined, and scars of regret.

Hesitation -William H. Bartlett

Unchecked, hesitation can become incapacitating. It is especially difficult to overcome as others misjudge your inaction as negligence, procrastination or simple laziness. It is not.

Reduce hesitation in life.

A confidant, mentor and great human being named Buddy Portugal showed me how to engage spontaneity, act on ideas and reduce hesitation in ways that have been life changing. Hesitation, he said, is a state-of-mind that can be tamed by awareness and practice.

People sacrifice the present for the future. But life is available only in the present. That is why we should walk in such a way that every step can bring us to the here and the now.--Thích Nhất Hạnh

His advice is to live in the present and be self-aware.

Much hesitation is fostered by something that might happen in the future, e.g., What will they think? What will happen next? All you can control is your actions at the present - act now. The future and how others react is out of your control.

Next, be very conscious to recognize the voice of hesitation in your thinking.  The very second that quiet thought becomes a dialogue, stop the discussion and get to work. Don't give creeping doubt and fear a voice.

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now --Goethe

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Scientists Beware: Fox News and Politicians Poison Minds with Junk Science

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Scientists Beware: Fox News and Politicians Poison Minds with Junk Science

In answer to a Sisyphean societal problem called we can't fix stupid, I recently proposed that we all take some responsibility for chipping away at the roots of stupidity instead of simply having a good laugh and sharing anecdotes with our friends. Digging deeper though, it seems so much of the stupidity we witness in society is a direct result of misinformation, fake facts, and junk science proliferated by the media.  I asked myself, how do we go about attacking junk science?  Then I thought about Don.

Harness brainpower to eliminate junk science

In the late 80s I met my neighbor Don for the first time. Don was a mathematician working for then Bell Labs and one of the first truly genius-level people I ever met. He created programming algorithms for something affectionately known among phone company employees as "the switch".  While I can't pretend to really know what he did at his job, allow me to digress for a moment to give you a sense of the complexity of the problems he solved.

Long before today's computing power, before the world wide web, before cell phones and laptops, Don was part of a very, very elite group of mathematicians and engineers working on the switch. What the switch did was in simple terms was traffic phone communications between caller and receiver. Say if you dialed 123-4567 your call was slowly directed by telephone circuits, in rooms literally filled with electromechanical relays, to a friend or business in your local area.  It could take up to ten seconds to dial a 10-digit phone number. Society's desire for speed and new features meant switching a call was becoming many orders of magnitude more complex.

During this time touch-tone dialing was replacing rotary dial phones, so the switch had to discern between a rotary signal and a touch-tone signal. Also, area codes were introduced (but not required) and therefore the system had to discern whether a call was local or to be switched to another largely electromechanical switch room in a different city. Features now taken for granted were being added like forwarding, conferencing, call waiting, and voice mail -- all seemingly  too much for electromechanical switches and simple computing power. Within the switch and its subsystems call functions were increasingly controlled by hard and soft coded instructions. Don created the mathematical algorithms that kept all this complexity and innovation progressing.

His head was always in the clouds, I'd engage him on the possibilities of what could be achieved by pure math power and he lit up. Despite downing more than one cocktail trying to track through his descriptions of how complex math could be employed to solve nearly any problem, I walked away having no doubt he was right.

Scientists, mathematicians, engineers, economists, and researchers -- Speak up!

What if Don were to apply just a fraction of his brainpower toward eliminating junk science? Wow. And there are a lot of really smart people just like him working on remarkable innovations all throughout the U.S. According to National Science Foundation statistics, some 3.5 million work in science & engineering research. So with all this brain power around, why are our lives dominated by an abundance of political, cultural, and economic junk science?

Proliferation of junk science has become an industry unto its own --overwhelming real science, truth, and fact at every turn. And the sad result is junk science is literally killing us humans in the form of pollution and exploitation of natural resources; it also poisons our society through misguided legislation, and suppression of the truth.

A 2010 study on the impact of misinformation in the U.S. electorate offers a staggering set of conclusions:

1. An overwhelming majority of voters... encountered misleading or false information during the prior election
2. The poll found strong evidence that voters were substantially misinformed on... the stimulus legislation, healthcare reform law, TARP, state of the economy, climate change, campaign contributions by the US Chamber of Commerce and President Obama’s birthplace, to name a few. In particular, voters had perceptions about the expert opinion of economists and other scientists that were quite different from actual expert opinion
3. There were significant differences in the level of misinformation encountered by those who voted Democratic and Republican
4. Consumers of all sources of media evidenced substantial misinformation, suggesting that false or misleading information is widespread in the general information environment... increasing exposure to news sources decreased misinformation; however, for notable conservative news sources (like Fox), higher levels of exposure increased misinformation.

A notorious marketing axiom has that you can build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door. Manufacturers and retailers who have relied on this strategy are long dead.  But scientists, mathematicians, engineers, economists, and other researchers who figuratively invent better mousetraps every day seem to be stuck to this old model, and will likely eventually share the same fate -- unless they change.  Their problem is the world doesn't pay attention to published research papers.

So what to do?  Speak up. Don't let your hard work and that of your colleagues be misrepresented in the media, twisted repetitively by our cultural leaders, and enacted into self-serving policies by politicians. Imagine if some 3.5 million really smart people were to devote just an hour a week of their time to ensure the accurate representation, dissemination, communication, and education of science to the masses.

182 million hours a year to promote common understanding of scientific fact

So what does scientific activism look like? Well to Stephen Hawking, it was publishing a book to help non-scientists understand fundamental questions of physics and our existence called, A Brief History of Time.  To others it is speaking as an expert on NPR, or other main stream media, writing a column, recording a podcast for the masses, starting a website or a blog, becoming more outspoken in your associations, demanding your peer groups take a stand on broader dissemination of the truth.

Our democracy cannot function if we are all making choices based on lies.

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Let's Enforce the Logan Act

What do these people have in common?

Robert Hanssen, Robert Ford,

Benedict Arnold, Aldrich Ames

Brutus, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

Judas Iscariot, Mata Hari

Tokyo Rose, and John Boehner

Traitors

Two weeks before national elections in Israel, prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu will have an opportunity to stand before a joint session of the US Congress at the invitation of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner.  There is one small problem here.

Speaker Boehner extended the invitation to the foreign leader without constitutional authority to do so, or permission from the White House. By law the President of the United States has sole authority to lead and conduct foreign policy.  When he or she engages in formulating treaties with foreign governments they are to seek the advice and consent of the Senate. The Constitution gives the House of Representatives no separate powers.

The Logan Act (1 Stat. 613, 30 January 1799, currently codified at 18 U.S.C. § 953) is a United States federal law that forbids unauthorized citizens from negotiating with foreign governments. It was passed in 1799 and last amended in 1994. Violation of the Logan Act is a felony, punishable under federal law with imprisonment of up to three years.-- Wikipedia

The Logan Act was passed under the administration of President John Adams, during tension between the U.S. and France.  It is named after Dr. George Logan of Pennsylvania, a member of Congress, who in 1798 engaged in semi-negotiations with France during the Quasi-War. The Act was intended to prohibit United States citizens without authority from interfering in relations between the United States and foreign governments.  Here is text:

§ 953. Private correspondence with foreign governments. 
Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.

This section shall not abridge the right of a citizen to apply himself, or his agent, to any foreign government, or the agents thereof, for redress of any injury which he may have sustained from such government or any of its agents or subjects.
1 Stat. 613, January 30, 1799, codified at 18 U.S.C. § 953 (2004)

The sedition that passes for governing on the Right is growing old.  It is time to remind elected officials much of what is going on lately is against the interests of the people they're elected to represent and against the law. 

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Motivating a Team of One

It feels awful to let your team down, just ask Green Bay Packer Brandon Bostick, after his team's recent NFL playoff game. Likely though he has the advantage of leaning on his teammates for support and motivation he'll need to recover from this dramatic loss.

How to start a team of one

One unfulfilled lifetime goal and solo initiative of mine has been to commit to a 3-4 times a week routine of physical exercise and activity. Over the years I've taken up jogging, joined health clubs, tried cross country skiing, biking, swimming, and other sports only to be knocked off course eventually by the excuse of distraction, interruption or some other life circumstance. And time and again there I am, staring at the person in the mirror knowing there's no one else in the room other than the reflection to blame for the breakdown -- the feeling can be overwhelming.

When there's no friendly teammates on hand to support you -- no question about it, it is hard to go it alone, to pick up and carry on. Recently though, for me, there's been an exception.

The only service a friend can really render is to keep up your courage by holding up to you a mirror in which you can see a noble image of yourself.--George Bernard Shaw

For two years now I've had consistent success in living up to my exercise goals.  The same set of excuses are still present, but my personal motivation and commitment are stronger. What's changed? Psychologically speaking, I've become a team of one+ (one plus).

That's right, no less than three times a week there's me and my dog, Fergus, running, training or participating in dog agility trials. Wait a minute, you say, that's a team of two. Not exactly.

Never once has my dog looked at me and said, "you know I just don't feel motivated today."

The reality is, and it's the most wonderful thing about dogs, they give 100% from the time they're born till the day they keel over. And in so many ways they are the perfect teammate -- they don't complain, rebel, or back-stab. So we work and compete as a team, and I do my best to keep up to the expectations of my four-legged teammate. But in the final analysis, I am a team of one.  I made the commitment, keep the practice schedule, drive to the competitions, and do everything I can to help us win.  And that's what's different.

It's just a point of view -- I don't want to disappoint my dog. Even though it's literally impossible to disappoint him -- he has no expectations. He's just as happy playing tug of war, taking a walk or chewing the fuzz off a tennis ball (the latter typically being about 180 seconds of entertainment).

Not letting down my friend is what always favorably tips the scales in the daily motivational debates in my head -- but it works.  Even Capt. Pickney  (see my Jan 2nd blog --Finding the Courage to Make Change) who has to face high seas after he leaves the dock, could have stopped half-way and turned back, but for his friends.  You see he had regular radio calls with school children during his journey -- he was a team of one who couldn't disappoint his friends.  
So the lesson learned for success is don't go it alone.  Build a team of one+, check in with a friend, routinely consult a mentor, educate an apprentice, or last but not least get a dog. 

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