Learning the meaning of it all..

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/24/laws-of-physics-cant-trump-the-bonds-of-love/

What a disappointment. No bending and no mending. Yes we need to look at and do something about violence in video games, but nothing else except more and bigger guns in the hands of good guys? Who are the good guys and how do we know they will not end up with the bad guys? 40% of gun sales occur in secondary markets (black markets unaccounted for). Nothing about better checks and waiting periods. Nothing about war grade assault weapons that can spray 100 bullets a minutes. A gun homicide somewhere every 20 minutes mostly with illegal weapons. They have lost it and lost a chance for a modicum of respect.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/22/opinion/the-nra-crawls-from-its-hidey-hole.html

Positive statement from NRA, the god of guns. Let's hope they have meaningful reflection in the coming days on the "wellness" and "regulation" aspects of the constitutional "well regulated militia". Looking forward to bending of minds in the Fri news conference.

Honor the victims -- with action

http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/17/opinion/gergen-gun-culture/index.html

God help America wean itself from the fallacy of law-abiding good citizens owning assault weapons making the society a safe place to live. Exactly one such snuffed out the sweet innocent smiles of so many little ones and senseless loss of adult lives caring for them and protecting them.

Arms, Liberty and Civility

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/16/the-freedom-of-an-armed-society/

Gumption n guns

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/16/opinion/sunday/kristof-do-we-have-the-courage-to-stop-this.html

Until the next random demon pops up amongst us what can we reflect upon?

That America was historically a land of settlers who used guns to protect themselves, and to form militias to defend freedom against authoritarian tyranny. That close to half a million died in the civil war fought to protect the perceived righteous freedoms on both sides. That ultimately one side's definition of freedom no longer counts in the modern world where America elected the first half-black and half-white president.

That in the last two hundred years guns like all other technology have advanced quite a lot. That we have advanced bombs and nuclear weapons we did not have then. That no one is clamoring for an individual's rights to manufacture and own bombs to form well-organized militias against the all powerful government. That we have faith in our 911 and police and army to protect us, not to go out of control against us.

Can we be a free people and still have the authoritarian government not mind their business but tell us to buckle up when we can do no harm to anyone else by not doing so?

Can we be a free people and still have the authoritarian government tell us to buy insurance, coax us to not smoke, protect us from harmful foods and drinks, make us pay our taxes, arrest us for walking naked on the streets?

If we can still be a shining statue of liberty, I don't see a reason why we cannot be a free nation even when the government does not allow, or severely restrict, the use of lethal semi-automatic and automatic guns that can kill dozens in minutes.

Chronicle of an Illustrious Illumination.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/13/arts/music/ravi-shankar-indian-sitarist-dies-at-92.html

Retina display is indeed powerful. After reading so much on my tired old iphone I could feel the strain on my eyes and after weighing the ipad mini versus ipad went with retina display ipad. Far too many form factors to juggle with in life, but I am glad I did go with the bigger screen and it is light enough (though not handy enough but I decided not to carry it anywhere out of the home). The screen quality is so good I am thinking I should be able to read all the books, magazines and news I want on it. After spending half hour on it the laptop screen seems blurry and fuzzy.