Four Glass Birds

Two by the Finnish glassmaker, Ove Toikka, one a wedding gift and one of unknown, or unremembered provenance. They're not exactly tiny but they're all I've got today. And, along with Spike, they are still one of the things that make me smile.

Two more mass shootings in California in the last week. They are no less heartbreaking/shocking/unfathomable/horrendous than any of the previous 500 ones, but I really think that the 24/7 coverage of this 'breaking news' is causing feelings of fear, helplessness or, worst of all numbness. It also makes me extremely angry that this country has bowed to the gun lobby, its ludicrous justifications for gun ownership and the fact that our failure to enact some kind (ANY kind) of gun control is making us look like a nation of vigilantes. Where have the sane people gone? A woman at the scene was quoted as saying that the stress and pressures of our current times builds up until it goes out of control and someone loses it. She is probably right, but if the shooter, with a record of workplace violence and restraining orders elsewhere, couldn't have gone out and purchased a semi automatic handgun, or if he had access to any kind of decent mental health care,  the pressures could have been dealt with in a less lethal way.

At the behest of Blipper IainatCreel I am reading Empire of Pain, about the freewheeling Shackler family, the empire they built upon the painkiller OxyContin and which was brought down by their shameless marketing practices. As far as I know, a lot of fines have been paid but not one of them has gone to prison. What interested me most was the fact that pills (for every possible ailment under the sun) and pharmaceutical companies are a relatively recent development which basically arose out of the discovery of antibiotics. 

So much for government regulation......

Another Blipper, Blethers, and I share a fondness for Leonard Cohen. She included a link to his song, 'Anthem' which is both moving and relevant to our troubled times. I'm passing it along. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8-BT6y_wYg