Dumb luck, laziness, and stupidity

In my local paper on Sunday, a suburban resident offered this tale in a letter to the editor:

Today I swung my front door wide open and placed my 30.06 right in the doorway. I gave it five shells to go in the clip, and noticing that it had no legs, even placed it in a wheelchair to help it get around. I then left it alone and went about my business.

Wow. Leaving a gun and ammunition sitting right by your open front door...seems kinda crazy, at least in my city neighborhood, maybe not so much for this guy.

So why did he leave the gun alone? Well, to see what it would do, of course.

While I was gone, the mailman delivered my mail, the neighbor boy across the street shoveled the snow, a girl walked her dog down the street, the trash man picked up the trash, and quite a few cars went by.

After about an hour, I checked on the gun. It was still sitting there in the wheelchair, right where I left it. It hadn't rolled itself outside. It certainly hadn't killed anyone, even with the numerous opportunities it had been presented to do so. In fact, it hadn't even loaded itself.

Silly gun. It had a golden opportunity, and failed to take advantage of it.

You can imagine my surprise, with all the media hype about how dangerous guns are and how they kill people. Either the media is wrong, and it's the misuse of guns by people that kill people, or I'm in possession of the laziest gun in the world.

Now, he and I disagree on whether killing someone with a gun is 'misuse'. I maintain that using a gun to take another person's life is actually using the weapon as intended, but I understand some folks disagree with me on that.  Many of us would agree though, that people kill people, frequently using guns. After all, the number of times a gun unilaterally kills someone, acting completely without any human interaction or stupidity, is pretty slim (particularly when compared with the number of times people kill other people using guns).

But back to our story. Two things came to mind when I read this, one about this poor unattended gun, and one about a boneheaded move of my own.  

First, about the gun: pretend for the sake of argument that the guy really did what he says he did -- leave a gun and shells sitting unattended just inside his front door -- he should probably be thanking his lucky stars that no one opened the door, loaded the gun, and 'misused' it against him, his family, or his possessions.  Or worse, that no one grabbed the gun and ammo and then 'misused' it against someone else. Can we agree on that?

Now, my boneheaded move:  typically on winter mornings, one of us will warm up the car using the remote starter.  My key ring has the clicker on it, and I always leave it in one of two places in the foyer, so either of us can start the car.  One morning when I went to look for the keys, they weren't in the most logical place, so I looked in the next most logical place, and they weren't there either.

I started back into the dining room to ask My Sweet Baboo if he had the keys, and then I remembered where they must be. With a sinking feeling, I turned around, headed for the front door, pulled it open, and yep, there they were.

Somehow, what with juggling my purse, tote bag, laptop bag, the mail, and a package, and MSB bringing in his work bag and the recycling bin, and both of us trying to make sure none of the cats got out, I foolishly left both the house keys and the car keys in the door. Not just for one hour, but for over twelve hours. The car was still in the driveway, fortunately.

So -- do I have the laziest keys in the world, or am I one lucky SOB, my stupidity going undetected and protecting me, our car, and our possessions? And would I be so lucky if  I did that over and over and over again? I'm thinking eventually the wrong person would step up on the porch, find my keys, and well, you can figure it out from there.  I also suspect the police would be a little less than excited about helping me out.

Same with my suburban letter writer.  Be stupid enough times (intentionally or otherwise) and it will bite you.  And if the worst-case scenario did happen for the man with the laziest gun in the world, I hope he'd be charged as an accessory to whatever crimes were committed using his 30.06.

Tuesday's Number: $632,691

Tuesday is the day my local paper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes the weekly business section. In addition to special features, tips from stock experts, budgeting advice and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings. 

As I did for much of last year, I will be tracking health care related filings. I include anything that is clearly a debt owed to a hospital, nursing home, physician or physician group, medical supplier, and so on; I do not include filings by insurance companies, many of which are so diversified it would not be a fair assumption that the filing is related to medical care or health insurance. 

This week, twenty-one people were listed with new judgments totaling $553,394 to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers.  

This week, three people were listed as having satisfied judgments totaling $79,297 to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers.

Again this week, there were no health-care related bankruptcies listed.  

Continuing the trend, none of the accounts was for less than $5,000.

Are You Feeling SAFE?

Early in January I wrote a post, One More Stab at Having a Gun Conversation, in which I expressed my willingness to try to understand some of the positions of the anti-gun control side, including those of the NRA as expressed by Wayne LaPierre after the Sandy Hook shootings.

After that post, I received an email response from a friend who is conservative, former military, a husband and father, married to a teacher, and one of my favorite people for deep conversations and thinking. Our conversation took a few weeks to play out, and ended up being well over 15,000 words (including the original post), but was interesting because while we started quite a bit apart from each other's opinion, we ended up with a significant amount of common ground.

And that was really the point of the post in the first place: people who actually are willing to struggle through a discussion on an emotionally-charged topic to find out whether there is any common ground may actually find some.  Jay and I got there, to common ground, because we respect each other and because we were willing to play it out until the end.

While we were having our own gun legislation debate, our governor Andrew Cuomo managed to rush through gun control legislation, either because he wants to be President (say the Republicans and their pundits) or because he wants us to be safe (say the Dems and their pundits). The bill is is the NY Secure Ammunition and Firearm Enforcement (SAFE) Act of 2013.

The SAFE Act includes many things and touches many areas of existing legislation, as illustrated by the bill's title (emphasis added):

An act to amend the criminal procedure law, the correction law, the family court act, the executive law, the general business law, the judiciary law, the mental hygiene law, the penal law and the surrogate's court procedure act, in relation to suspension and revocation of firearms licenses; private sale or disposal of firearms, rifles or shotguns and establishing a minimum age to possess a firearm; to amend the family court act, the domestic relations law and the criminal procedure law, in relation to providing for the mandatory suspension or revocation of the firearms license of a person against whom an order of protection or a temporary order of protection has been issued under certain circumstances, or upon violation of any such order; to amend the penal law, in relation to community guns and the criminal sale of a firearm and in relation to the definitions of aggravated and first degree murder; to amend chapter 408 of the laws of 1999 constituting Kendra's Law, in relation to extending the expiration thereof; and to amend the education law, in relation to the New York state school safety improvement teams; and in relation to building aid for metal detectors and safety devices.

All that sounds quite lofty, as these bills typically do.

In a nutshell, the bill limits ammunition clips, increases background checks on guns and ammo, adds penalties for shooting first responders (the Webster provision), increases requirements on gun owners, including some misdemeanor charges if these are not followed, redefines 'assault weapons' and bans future sales (but allows folks to keep them if they register them), and goes a long way towards trying to keep guns out of the hands of those with mental illness. It also increases penalties for gun crimes, bans some Internet sales, and requires renewal of permits.  And, it creates a review process for school safety programs, as well as providing for enhanced reimbursement for schools that purchase certain security devices.

The law is widely and ongoingly criticized, with nearly half of all counties in the state officially voicing their disapproval (Onondaga County, where I live, has not yet done so but likely will). For the most part, even people who believe in many of the provisions are appalled at the process and the speed with which the legislation was passed.

I share that concern; I agree conceptually with much of what's in the bill, particularly increased background checks, doing something to limit access by those with mental illness, and increasing  penalties for criminal use of guns, but I don't believe we needed to get a bill written, voted on, and signed all in a matter of hours.

In the coming days, I'll share some of the conversation I had with my buddy on guns and common ground. In the meantime, here's a thought for New York's Legislature and Governor Cuomo: being first out of the gate isn't what's going to get us to the finish line -- and by that I mean having viable, enforceable legislation that actually helps keep us safe.

After all, medals are given at the end of the race, not at the beginning.

Sidebar: Embracing winter

The weekend before Valentine's Day My Sweet Baboo and I were booked for a short getaway to rejuvenate and refresh after the long and somewhat logy holiday season of 'too': too much rich food, too much sugary candy, too many leftovers that keep finding their way out of the freezer and onto our table, and too little exercise. 

Typically, for our February escape, I'll find a bed & breakfast somewhere in the Finger Lakes so we can do some winery-hopping.  But this time, with more than enough wine on our racks, I set my sights on the Catskills and started looking for places we could go. I picked The Washington Irving Inn, in Tannersville, and made our reservations before the end of January.

And then...Yep, you guessed it, another of our all-too-frequent 'storm of the century' events loomed on the horizon.  We had a coastal storm. We had a west to east storm. And the two storms were looking to hook up, if you get my drift, somewhere over the New Jersey-New York-Massachusetts area.

The predictions were horrific, they came days in advance and were unending on the local news, in the paper, on the national news.  The weather people were out in full force, trying to come up with the most provocative forecasts, if not the most accurate.  For example, here's the warning that was in my local paper, Syracuse's Post-Standard, the day before we were scheduled to leave:

If you have travel plans in and out of Central New York, here is some information which might be helpful.

First, if you are traveling east, or coming into Central New York from the east, travel Friday will be difficult. Even if you leave early. By 10 or 11 AM, snow, or some sort of a wintry mix should be entering the mid Atlantic all the way up into the Catskills and Poconos.

If you absolutely have to travel tomorrow, it's best to leave leave early. If you can travel this evening instead, all the better. Less stress.

Really? A massive blizzard?  Leave early to avoid the weather and stress?  Rather than listen to the weatherman, we decided we'd stick to the plan and leave Friday morning. We packed plenty of stuff to read and a laptop, in case we got snowed in. We stopped for gas, bought a new snow brush, and headed out shortly before 10AM, expecting to drive straight into the storm.

Traveling down the Thruway, we saw literally dozens of snowplows on the move; there was no snow on the roads, no ice or anything - it looked more like the plows were getting into position to wait for the inevitable.  Leaving the Thruway, we meandered off  through Schoharie on Route 10, then to Route 23, then to 23A which took us to Tannersville. 

We did not see a single snowflake until around 1:45, when we saw three or four (total).  By around 2:30, it was snowing pretty good, with a few inches of accumulation.  After dinner, backin our room,
we were bombarded by weather reports and dire predictions of 15 - 25 inches of snow, getting them not only from multiple NY stations (capital district and Catskill/Hudson area) but also from Eastern Massachusetts and from NYC.  (Note to self: spend more time watching HGTV and less time on local stations.)

In the end, we saw less than a foot of snow - in some places, way less than a foot, more like three or four inches. Saturday morning, the roads had all been plowed, and in many cases we were driving on bare pavement just a few short hours after the storm had ended. 

So much for needing to leave town a day early.

Tuesday's Number: $645,159

Tuesday is the day my local paper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes the weekly business section. In addition to special features, tips from stock experts, budgeting advice and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings.

As I did for much of last year, I will be tracking health care related filings. I include anything that is clearly a debt owed to a hospital, nursing home, physician or physician group, medical supplier, and so on; I do not include filings by insurance companies, many of which are so diversified it would not be a fair assumption that the filing is related to medical care or health insurance.

This week, twenty-five people were listed with new judgments totaling $645,159 to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers. One was for over $291,000.  I look at that and just shake my head, first wondering how I'd ever be able to pay off that kind of debt, and second, thanking my lucky stars that I have health insurance, so the risk of me running up that kind of debt to a local medical provider in the first place is just about zero. Out of network, or out of area providers, well, that's somewhat of a different story under most insurance plans, but for a local hospital in my own backyard, I'm in pretty good shape.

This week, there were no listings for satisfied judgments to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers.

And this week, there were no health-care related bankruptcies listed. 

None of the accounts was for less than $5,000.

Syracuse winters? Bring 'em on!

Local columnist Sean Kirst had a conversation with long-time Syracuse booster Russ Andrews about Syracuse being the snowiest major city in New York, if not the country. Andrews suggests that it might not be good for us to focus on that, and also that perhaps if we moved the official snowfall measuring station to downtown, we might be able to drop the snow capital name and gain some economic boost.

The official weather reporting for our area is done at Hancock International Airport, in the snowfall-prone 'north of the Thruway' area a few miles north of downtown, where there is typically less snow. According to Andrews,

I think it’s wonderful to be first in anything, but I don’t think it’s good for our economy to be seen as being all that snowy. I work just north of the Thruway...and it’ll be a blizzard out there and when I get home, to downtown, we’ll be getting nothing.

I agree with Andrews on the differences between reporting stations. Similar to real estate, with weather it's location, location, location. I live in The Valley, a few minutes south of the city center, and more often than not that the weather we have here is different than the weather at any of the local TV stations, even as they are telling us about the differences between their on-set weather and that at the airport. There have been many times when we've left  the homes of friends and family in other sections of the city in a blinding snowstorm - or rainstorm, for that matter - and quickly entered clear skies and clean dry streets.  And there are of course times when we have the inclement weather at our house, but nothing's happening in Eastwood or Tipp Hill, and something totally different is happening in Liverpool or Manlius or at the airport.

Kirst's question is, should we embrace the airport weather, or should we pretend it's not representative? And should we aspire to be number two or three on the list of snowy cities?  Do we really want to lose the Golden Snowball to someone else, our fellow cities-in-snow Buffalo, Rochester, Albany or Binghamton? And could we stand losing to someone outside New York, like Erie PA?

S Drummond photo


Frankly, I'm on the 'embrace' side of things. I'm not a skier or a snowmobiler, but I do enjoy getting outside in all kinds of weather, including winter, for the fresh air, to take photos and to just enjoy the weather hand we're dealt. I also shovel a mean driveway and sidewalk, having lived in Central New York for most of my 54 years. 

I remember back in the day, I'm guessing it was the 80's or 90's, when we had the slogan  "Don't like the weather? Wait five minutes!"  There was another one, along the lines of  "In Syracuse, we have four seasons - sometimes all in the same day!"  Now, I can't recall if anyone officially used these or not, but at least in conversation, (with tongue firmly planted in cheek) we wore our weather on our sleeves and laughed at it.  

Here's my favorite comment (from user 'crysania')  in response to Kirst's post:

Does it really matter? 103 inches of snow is still a LOT of snow to most people. Saying "Oh no it's not that bad! We didn't get 149 inches of snow, we only got 103!" sounds ridiculous to people not from the area. So measuring it in a different place isn't going to make it any "better" in terms of snow.

She goes on to point out what those of us who live here already know, but seem to forget:

Perhaps what should be advertised along with it is that we have a lot of snowplows, a lot of salt, and for the most part we know how to tackle this much snow. Most of the time our snow falls in a few inches every day, which here is not a big deal. And often some falls and then melts away, then more falls, then melts away. It's not often we have 4 or 5 feet of snow on the ground. I guess if they're SO afraid of the snow chasing people away, they need to show how it's either not a big deal or how it can be good for business.

Here's Andrews again:

A lot of cities don't have four seasons.  Why should our worst season be most prominent? 

Our "worst" season?  C'mon -- winter is one of our four best seasons!  Our winters are only a part of what we need to be selling - yes, selling - to folks who might be interested in coming here to live, to attend college, to start a business, or just to visit. 

As I write this, there are ridiculously small snowflakes wandering around outside, acting like they can't decide whether to just stay afloat or come in for a landing. I'm hoping that they'll build up some momentum, and cover the ground with a fresh blanket of snow. Not a ton, mind you, but just enough to make it pretty again, until it's time (and warm enough) for us to get outside and start our spring cleaning.

Are you with me?



Tuesday's Number: $786,714

Tuesday is the day my local paper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes the weekly business section. In addition to special features, tips from stock experts, budgeting advice and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings.

As I did for much of last year, I will be tracking health care related filings. I include anything that is clearly a debt owed to a hospital, nursing home, physician or physician group, medical supplier, and so on; I do not include filings by insurance companies, many of which are so diversified it would not be a fair assumption that the filing is related to medical care or health insurance.

This week, forty-seven people were listed with new judgments totaling $727,488 to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers; one of the forty-seven is incarcerated at a correctional facility in the Albany area. 

This week, one person was listed as having satisfied a judgment to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers, for $14,552.

And this week, there were three health-care related bankruptcies listed, totaling $44,674.

None of the accounts was for less than $5,000.

Tuesday's Number: $322,937

Tuesday is the day my local paper, the Syracuse Post-Standard, publishes the weekly business section. In addition to special features, tips from stock experts, budgeting advice and the like, we get the judgment and bankruptcy listings. 

As I did for much of last year, I will be tracking health care related filings. I include anything that is clearly a debt owed to a hospital, nursing home, physician or physician group, medical supplier, and so on; I do not include filings by insurance companies, many of which are so diversified it would not be a fair assumption that the filing is related to medical care or health insurance. 

This week, twenty-one people were listed with new judgments totaling $302,896 to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers.  

This week, no one was listed as having satisfied a judgment to hospitals, doctors, or other medical providers. 

And this week, there were two health-care related bankruptcies listed, totaling $20,041.  

None of the accounts was for less than $5,000.

Obama kills Navy SEAL.

Retired Navy SEAL and author Chris Kyle was killed Saturday at a Texas shooting range by another former soldier, Eddie Ray Routh, who reportedly suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Until this morning, I I had never heard of Chris Kyle, never heard of his storied military career, never heard of his book, "American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in US Military History" and didn't know that he had over 150 confirmed kills.  Highly decorated (two Silver Stars and five Bronze Stars with Valor), after leaving the military Kyle formed Craft International (a security training company) and helped start the FITCO Cares Foundation to help fellow former service men and women who suffer (ironically) from PTSD.  He also apparently was one of the favorites on the TV show "Stars Earn Stripes" (which I didn't watch).

I learned about Chris Kyle this morning when a friend shared Sarah Palin's Facebook post on his passing. Here's her heartfelt post, which at the time I read it this morning had around 41,000 likes and now has over 77,000:

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and many friends of former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle tonight. Todd and I first met Chris in Pella, Iowa, when he helped out with security for the premiere of the film "The Undefeated."  And later we became friends with Chris when he was on "Stars Earn Stripes" with Todd.  Chris was a wonderful man, a good friend, and a true American hero who loved our country and served honorably.  He was loved and admired by so many, and he will never be forgotten. -Todd and Sarah Palin 

There was nothing political in Palin's comments. Not so, however, some of the comments posted in response. There are apparently a number of people who are convinced that Kyle's murder was a government action, ordered by President Obama (and his faithful sidekick Hillary Clinton).

I'm going to protect the people who made these comments, but you can see them for yourself on Palin's page.  There were a whole mess of general conspiracy theory posts, and then there were these specific to Obama and Clinton:

Obama minions at work they are prepping us. Tell us about all the military actions across the U.S in cities. It's coming!

And he was murdered by a President and Secretary of State.

Someone needs to check into whether this was a hit from the Obama administration. Sounds like Chicago to me. 

I agree I wouldn't be surprised if Obama's administration had something to do with it.

Probably one of Obama's Islam hit men. 

I feel this is a conspiracy by the Obama administration.

I agree Obummer had his hands on this somewhere.

Do we have another Whitewater scam going on here?  

Some folks went a little more into the weeds with their comments, men (and women) offering these gems for our consideration: 

We need an investigation into these executions of so many anti-Obama Patriots. Breitbart, Noveske, gun shop owner of FPSRussia, and now Kyle.  

I'm proud of all the soldiers past and present and future they stand for what this country is and OBAMA is ruining it which is I feel all these deaths of these soldiers are all because of him if he ain't behind it he knows something about it or its because of what he is doing to our country we as AMERICANS need to stand up and fight together just as our military does to get this so-called president out of our country where he belongs. 

Governor Palin, you seem to be the only one with balls in this pussified nation anymore. The SEALS are being murdered and I believe it has to do with the fake Bin Laden job and Obama and Clinton are behind it.  

Our Navy SEALS are being murdered, who do you think has ordered these murders? I am sick to think that our own government is probably behind these events. Think about how many have been killed and how many generals are being relieved of their duty. We need answers.  

I agree...sounds like another planned killing from the Feds...too many people getting killed lately.  Makes me wonder if Sandy Hook and that movie theater was in that planned killing from the Feds to have everyone agree with them to eliminate our guns.

I'm not so sure this was accidental. He was heavy against the government and they are really digging in on those who speak against the current administration. Just sayin.

His family deserves to know who the shooter met with prior to the incident and his political affiliations.  Too many SEALS are being eliminated.  

As I stated on a veteran's site, sounds like a set up to me with this Gun Ban issue. A top lethal sniper just killed on a Saturday practice at a Gun Range... Come ON.

Clearly this man along with other outspoken Americans have been gunned down in the last two months. What are YOU and the rest of the Tea Party going to do. ENOUGH already...take a real stand...call for action Sarah PLEASE.  The American people need someone to bite the bullet and stop what we all know is going on.

His death is very suspicious with the very timely opening of the movie just out...smells like a hit to me and our government is not above doing just that. The truth will probably never come out.  

Right. "The truth will probably never come out." Nor will a statement from me announcing I understand what the hell these people are thinking.