A happy reunion, and other musings.

It was great to gather with friends for a reunion meal last night in Dallas. We drank deep draughts from the meat faucet that is Texas de Brazil, whose food and staff were impeccable. It was great to see old friends, and to make some new ones. :) The parmesan chicken is as wonderful as I remember it to be, as is the wonderful picanha, which is technically top sirloin, I believe. After an appropriate cooling off period, I will look forward to my next visit to TdB!

In several hours, we will mosey over to the NRAAM, where I'll post some photos. We got to town too late to really go to the con yesterday, but it was exciting to see hundreds of motorcycle police from the motorcade near Love Field in town. 

I saw some clips online of Trump's speech at the NRAAM, and I hope he follows through with his commitment to preserve the Second Amendment. 

I am curious about the protest cohort that will be out and about tomorrow near the convention. I saw photos on FB of one sparsely-attended protest with signs that read "Nut-job Racist Assholes", "33,000 violence gun deaths/year",  and "21st Century Guns/ 18th Century Laws", among others. Winning hearts and minds, right? Considering about 12,000 of those gun deaths were law-abiding citizens protecting their own lives from attackers, it's not really rational to claim those deaths as random "gun violence", is it? I'd like to question the young lady whether she believes "18th Century Laws" on freedom of speech apply to what she says on the internet, which is a 20th century development. Finally, there might be some hideous racists who are members of NRA, but I am not aware of any, happily. Likewise, there are probably some vehemently racist people who are anti-gun, too. Something can be A truth without being THE truth, is my point. As for hate, the thing I hate most is the arrogance of someone who uses some extreme (or made-up) example as an excuse to why they should be allowed to impose on my Constitutionally-guaranteed rights. And the question of the killing of innocents really comes down to the flawed human heart-- the means by which murder is committed does not make one murder more heinous than another-- the murderer is culpable. The people killed in the bombing attacks in Austin, or killed by vans or trucks in Canada and Europe, or killed by the 9/11 attackers are not less dead because they weren't killed with guns. People being murdered by knife attack in London these days are not less dead than other dead people, and outlawing every bladed instrument on earth will not stop murder. The strict gun laws of France did not save the people murdered in the offices of Charlie Hebdo or the concert-goers in club Bataclan in Paris. People need to recognize the distinction.