The Garden of the Blind

There has been a lot of talk recently about gun rights/control. This last week, Tim Kaine expressed his loathing for people who have been making a “political hobbyhorse” out of the issue. While I have a lot that I could say on the subject, I will, for the most part, refrain for now. This is partly because I generally agree with Governor Kaine, and partly because I don’t really have a position on the issue. It is a very complex subject that is unfortunately over-simplified by pundits on both sides, and I don’t think that we’re anywhere close to resolution.

Instead, I present two litmus tests. If you wonder where you fall regarding the gun debate, check yourself against these and you can quickly determine where you lie.

First: Upon hearing about some incident where a person goes crazy and starts shooting at innocent bystanders, you think,

• “If only someone there had a concealed weapon. They could have protected those people and stopped the shooter.”
• “If only there were more laws to keep weapons out of the hands of people like that. We’d be a lot safer if you couldn’t buy a handgun so easily.”

For the second test, read the two point-counterpoint editorials published on CNN.com, written by Tom Plate and Ted Nugent. It may help if you randomize the order in which you read them, but the order that I have listed them is the order in which they were listed on the CNN site.

If you find yourself saying that either writer is absolutely right, and the other is a hopelessly naive fool, then you know where you stand.

P.S. If you disagree with both of the options above, that’s okay. Regardless of what some people say, it’s okay to be a moderate.

Last week, I went on yet another trip. It is interesting how I can go to the same places over and over again and yet have vastly different experiences each time. This was my third trip to eastern Pennsylvania where I took a one day side trip to the New York City area. The last time I went, everything went swimmingly, in spite of some snow on the morning of a 2 hour drive. This time, in spite of relatively sunny weather, we were bogged down in traffic and a general problem with too many travelers and not enough places to go. Certainly there were many things that could have gone wrong that didn’t, and yet a lot of things worked out well anyway.

• The flight from Cincinnati to Scranton was over booked, but I got an exit row (when you’re my size, the extra leg room is a huge deal).
• The guy I was going to NYC with lost his credit card to a hungry ATM, delaying us for an hour and a half, but we (theoretically) missed the worst of New York traffic.
• We hit stop an go traffic on the Cross-Bronx Expressway, but I always wanted to spend an evening breathing stinky NYC traffic air (sorry, not every cloud has a silver lining).
• We got to the hotel at 9:00, but I had the best night sleep of the trip that night.
• We hit stop and go traffic again on the CBE, but we were able to finish our work at our afternoon contractor appointment (our fourth stop of the day).
• We got in late to our hotel that night too, but they had great cookies out.
• I had to get up at 4:15 EDT to catch my flight, but I did catch the other guy who had that flight so that I could get a ride to the airport.
• I had a 15 minute layover in Cincinnati (that’s usually not long enough if your plane is at the next gate over, much less a bus ride away), but I caught my next flight even though I only had a standby ticket (more amazing is that my luggage caught the flight too).
• The guy in front of my on my last flight leaned his seat back, but I had an empty seat next to me and my knees crossed, effectively keeping his seat in place.

I also made a lot of progress on my new Sudoku program. I demonstrated its adaptability by creating a checker Sudoku puzzle, which is harder than a standard 9x9 puzzle. Enjoy!