The course was virtually empty, save for this golfer and coyote! ;-)
Apparently around 4-5 it got near 105!
Thursday, August 15, 2019
Weather-hyped
On the 18th hole it was 95 with a breeze ... that was 12:50
The course was virtually empty, save for this golfer and coyote! ;-)
Apparently around 4-5 it got near 105!
The course was virtually empty, save for this golfer and coyote! ;-)
Apparently around 4-5 it got near 105!
Saturday, August 10, 2019
The Putt
Sea Ranch
August 5, 2019
Hole 11
Some say the putt was so long it deserved an intermission: 85 feet as the crow flies. Add 10 more feet for the circuitous route it had to take before gently disappearing in the cup!
Longest putt ever for Raggio!
August 5, 2019
Hole 11
Some say the putt was so long it deserved an intermission: 85 feet as the crow flies. Add 10 more feet for the circuitous route it had to take before gently disappearing in the cup!
Longest putt ever for Raggio!
The Amendment needed
Until the ownership of a gun becomes a privilege, not a right, we’ll continue on the merry-go-round, grasping at a ring everyone knows is one hand too far to capture.
I don’t know any responsible, reasonable gun owner who truly believes his or her guns will be taken away by a president, a party, or even both parties. Fear incites such ideas, such nonsense. Only a minority threatens their sport, their traditions, and their safety. Those professionals I know and worked with regard possession of their weapons more as a privilege than a right. And with that privilege comes the maintenance of and responsibility for the use of those weapons; they know the force (and the implied force) weapons carry.
Making ownership of a gun a privilege that must come with the same responsibilities the majority of gun owners practice today seems to me the only sensible path to reducing the crisis that afflicts us. Arguing the point about a right does not help. Deserving the privilege would, in my opinion, go far toward preserving the right.
If you own a gun and you don’t hear voices or you haven’t had dreams of carnage and murder, then you are as frustrated as a non-gun owner with the lack of imagination in our Congress, and you see this is not about taking away your gun. Rather it is about finding the antidote to the fringe who use, abuse, and terrorize us with the constant distraction of hate.
The Second Amendment needs to speak to privilege, not right.
We need to stop repeating the talking points and guesses about gun registration and background checks—those will come, but they will come down the line. Ask any cop if background checks will have an impact on the carnage, and the response will be, “Not a scintilla!” A serious background investigation for a new officer may take weeks, even months. There aren’t enough people on the planet to conduct serious background checks on new gun owners. (And we can’t even pass that law!)
A few suggestions:
1. Finding a way to reduce the number of weapons in this country is paramount. We need to get the guns out of the hands of yahoos who want to shoot stop signs and fire into the air on holidays. Access to weapons is too easy. Most guns are handed down, or you know a guy, or you know a guy who knows a guy …
2. Making the mere possession of an assault weapon, outside of a responsible entity like a gun club, punishable on the same level as possession of a chemical weapon will make a difference. Make the punishment unthinkable.
3. Reducing the arsenal we use on ourselves will have to find fresh ideas and be reduced to the state level for enforcement. Dividing a problem by 50 ideas works better than trying to manipulate the current sludge of Congress.
4. Expecting that Congress will cure, solve, or move is futile. If they move on background checks, they’ll say, “Well, it’s not the answer, but it’s a start.” No, it’s not a start. It’s hands having trouble patting each other’s backs. These people have become experts at a conversation that speaks to no one but themselves; they will not move unless their re-election is threatened.
5. Changing the verbiage in the Second Amendment is the only way I see to circumvent the Supreme Court and the gun lobbyists.
We can shake our collective head; avoid malls, stadiums, concerts, and any line longer than ten people; or we can consider demanding the right to live without fear for our children and the exploitation of these events by the Internet and the press, even when exposure of those events is excused with the disclaimer: “What you are about to see …”
I don’t know any responsible, reasonable gun owner who truly believes his or her guns will be taken away by a president, a party, or even both parties. Fear incites such ideas, such nonsense. Only a minority threatens their sport, their traditions, and their safety. Those professionals I know and worked with regard possession of their weapons more as a privilege than a right. And with that privilege comes the maintenance of and responsibility for the use of those weapons; they know the force (and the implied force) weapons carry.
Making ownership of a gun a privilege that must come with the same responsibilities the majority of gun owners practice today seems to me the only sensible path to reducing the crisis that afflicts us. Arguing the point about a right does not help. Deserving the privilege would, in my opinion, go far toward preserving the right.
If you own a gun and you don’t hear voices or you haven’t had dreams of carnage and murder, then you are as frustrated as a non-gun owner with the lack of imagination in our Congress, and you see this is not about taking away your gun. Rather it is about finding the antidote to the fringe who use, abuse, and terrorize us with the constant distraction of hate.
The Second Amendment needs to speak to privilege, not right.
We need to stop repeating the talking points and guesses about gun registration and background checks—those will come, but they will come down the line. Ask any cop if background checks will have an impact on the carnage, and the response will be, “Not a scintilla!” A serious background investigation for a new officer may take weeks, even months. There aren’t enough people on the planet to conduct serious background checks on new gun owners. (And we can’t even pass that law!)
A few suggestions:
1. Finding a way to reduce the number of weapons in this country is paramount. We need to get the guns out of the hands of yahoos who want to shoot stop signs and fire into the air on holidays. Access to weapons is too easy. Most guns are handed down, or you know a guy, or you know a guy who knows a guy …
2. Making the mere possession of an assault weapon, outside of a responsible entity like a gun club, punishable on the same level as possession of a chemical weapon will make a difference. Make the punishment unthinkable.
3. Reducing the arsenal we use on ourselves will have to find fresh ideas and be reduced to the state level for enforcement. Dividing a problem by 50 ideas works better than trying to manipulate the current sludge of Congress.
4. Expecting that Congress will cure, solve, or move is futile. If they move on background checks, they’ll say, “Well, it’s not the answer, but it’s a start.” No, it’s not a start. It’s hands having trouble patting each other’s backs. These people have become experts at a conversation that speaks to no one but themselves; they will not move unless their re-election is threatened.
5. Changing the verbiage in the Second Amendment is the only way I see to circumvent the Supreme Court and the gun lobbyists.
We can shake our collective head; avoid malls, stadiums, concerts, and any line longer than ten people; or we can consider demanding the right to live without fear for our children and the exploitation of these events by the Internet and the press, even when exposure of those events is excused with the disclaimer: “What you are about to see …”
Friday, August 9, 2019
A Woman ...
... has a thousand more reasons to be angry than a man, and yet women don't go AK-47 hunting. Hmmmm …
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