The return of a slacker

I've been away longer than I expected; no excuses.

Since I've been here last my wife and I have had an anniversary  (39 years!), I've done a lot of gardening, and I have spent the last week and a half recovering from cellulitis in my right leg. The cellulitis was somewhat debilitating since there is a high fever involved, a swollen and painful leg, and a lot of dizziness and such caused by low blood pressure (for the first three days my BP was 87/56) and danger of fainting.  The antibiotics have gotten rid of it, but my skin itches and burns a bit, like a sunburn.  One of the side effects of the infection and antibiotics is that it plays merry hell with my blood sugar; at times (with little or no carb intake) my sugar will sometimes bounce from 100 to 225, and after a night's sleep run to 180,  Hopefully now that I'm done with the antibiotics this foolishness will come to an end.  Haven't had a decent night's sleep in a long time, I seem to be tired a lot as a result.
But enough about me.

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GBR VII is coming up during the first week of September, hopefully it will be a good time like last year.

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 I notice a lot of news about the civil war in Syria; the media  acts almost shocked at the scale of the killing and mayhem going on.  That area of the world has always been violent and bloody; the middle east is populated by governments that other than borrowed technology, have never advanced out of the Dark Ages.  They still wage war and kill each other the same as their tribal forebears going back 3000 years.  Why should they stop now, just because someone has introduced them to better weaponry?  The hate and violence goes on, and I doubt it will ever change.

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Since I was here last, we have had several high profile shootings.

A nut collects some firearms, and opens up in a movie theater.
Some dirtbag decides to shoot up a Sikh temple.
A disgruntled worker in NYC kills his boss.

Some people would blame the firearms; to me the commonality in all of these is that the shooter picked places where they didn't have to worry about other people being able to defend themselves.  The theater had a no-guns policy, the temple only allowed the kirpan, and NYC does everything short of banning handguns in the city.  These were all Kill Zones, and I would not be surprised to see more atrocities as some of these criminals realize that as long as there are places like that, it is like shooting fish in a barrel.
Would armed citizens have been able to stop these shootings, or cut down on the damage?  It is hard to tell; maybe they could have changed things, maybe not, but at least someone would have been able to try, and I doubt if they could have turned out worse.  We saw what happened in NYC; they police injured several bystanders by firing 16 shots at the gunman, and hit in less than half the shots.  Contrary to what people see on TV and in the movies, the average policeman is not that good of a shot.  A lot of them only shoot their sidearm once or twice a year when qualifying.  Most non-LEO gun owners I know spend a lot more time, and are much better shots.  Your chances of being accidentally shot by a policeman as compared to a CCW carrier are roughly 5 to 1 from what I remember of the stats compiled by the CDC.
Just something to keep in mind. 

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Any favorites in this bunch?

"We're Not Gonna Take It" by Twisted Sister
"Blue Suede Shoes" by Carl Perkins
"I Want You to Rock Me" by Vixen
"Kicks" by Paul Revere & the Raiders
"It's A Heartache" by Bonnie Tyler
"Crackerbox Palace" by George Harrison
"Dark Night" by The Blasters
"Kerosene" by Miranda Lambert
"All I Really Want to Do" by Sonny & Cher
"The Way It Is" by Bruce Hornsby


Gotta love the Eighties; hot girls, leather, and rock and roll



Another blonde, but from the country side of music.



And a lady from the late Seventies.