SIDE SALAD - Everything crunchy is good.

RELOADING RITA

Willie forwards this e-mail photo, titled, "Why Texas didn't have looting."

He writes:

Hey guys,

Is this a great country, or what?

Later,

Willie

It is indeed, Willie.

Which reminds me... I better go get my Glock. My neighbor Rich just got back from the grocery store, and I'm kinda hungry.

A clarification: Willie sends along this e-mail, just so we know where this all comes from...

Hey Jeff:

I didn't make this clear earlier, but, um, just so you know, I don't exactly identify with that group of jolly vigilantes in Texas.

Although I will, by god, put my gun experience up against anybody's.

Grew up in the rural South with guns, got my first .22 rifle at the age of 12 and first shotgun at 16. My dad raised three kids to adulthood with two loaded firearms hanging in plain sight on a gun rack in the den. They were still hanging there and still loaded when the house caught fire and burned down in 1989. Luckily, none of the volunteer firefighters got hurt when the flames reached them and set off the ammo.

When I did my hitch in the Army, I earned an Expert marksman's badge with the M-16. That's the best you can do, the same as Lee Harvey Oswald earned in the Marines, by the way.

And yes, there's a gun in my house now -- a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun -- because if someone breaks into my house, I don't intend to carry on a debate with him about whether he should be here.

So I'm totally comfortable around firearms. But the "shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later" crowd, the "shoot-'em-all-and-let-God-sort-it-out" crowd, the "political-power-begins-at-the-muzzle-of-a-gun" crowd, give me the creeps. It's one thing to be prepared to defend your home, if necessary. It's another thing to gleefully brandish your firearms in public and imply that anyone seen on the streets after a hurricane -- or maybe just on the streets after dark -- is going to be subject to interrogation at gunpoint and possible lead poisoning.

The guys in that photo are scary. I could write a 5,000-word essay on why they're scary, but I'll spare you. Just wanted to make sure that you understood that when I said, "Is this a great country, or what" that I was being sarcastic, sardonic, ironic, smartass, etc. It is a great country, but not because we allow morons to go armed in the streets.

Later,

Willie

And as I told Willie, I was being sarcastic as well.

I mean, do you really want this crazy S.O.B. around with these kind of gun-handling skills?

No. No you do not. And why his friend to the right is smiling, I have no idea.

Posted by Jeff at October 2, 2005 08:03 PM