I just want to say that if MODIQUES were a word, I would have gotten 230 point on a single turn. 

It was a thing of beauty. 

I am trying to let go of my disappointment, but it may take some time.

THE OTHER REASON MIKE VOTES REPUBLICAN

Mike Wallin: “You neglected Monday to touch on my second reason for being Republican: If decent people are allowed to carry arms and we have a police force and judiciary that allow citizens to defend themselves, the world is a better place.  Perhaps you didn’t notice that New York is a much more pleasant place after (our next President, G-d Willing) Rudy came in and cleaned it up.”

F But he didn’t do it by encouraging citizens to carry concealed weapons in bars and on the subway.  In fact, here is Rudy on the gun issue in 1997:

Yesterday, President Clinton outlined his proposals for more stringent, federal gun licensing requirements.

His proposals include:

·        prohibiting non-citizens from buying guns;

·        requiring proof of residency, including photo id. and something like a utility bill in the buyers name... similar to what is required for a drivers license;

·        making cop killer, or Teflon coated, armor piercing bullets illegal;

·        and requiring child safety locks on the weapons of all Federal Officials to prevent these guns from ever winding up in the hands of children.

I applaud the President's proposals, and I will support them any way I can.

I only hope that he is right, and that Congress is finally ready to recognize that the vast majority of Americans want more gun control. It makes sense. It is time. And we can no longer let special interests dominate this vitally important issue.

Democrats want gun safety.  Close the gun-show loophole.  Discourage the sale of assault weapons and cop killer bullets.  License gun owners.  That kind of thing.  Republicans defeat these measures.  And Republicans like Mike think we could all rest easier if we knew more people walking or driving past us, or sitting beside us at the ballgame, were armed. 

THE NATIONAL DEBT

James Musters: “While on hold for tech support, I was playing with my Lotus Spreadsheet, trying to put the National Debt in proportion.  Not an easy task.  From the government, I found out that a dollar bill is 0.155956 meters long.  The National Debt clock says today’s debt is 7,925,781,782,400 dollars.  So if you taped dollar bills together end to end to form a long chain, the national debt would be 1,236,073,223 kilometers long.  How far is that?  Well, the moon is 384,400 kilometers away, so the national debt, strung end to end, gets to the moon and back more than 16,000 times.  The sun is a lot further away, about 149,600,000 kilometers, so the debt could make four round trips.  The chain of debt is longer than the circumference of the earth's yearly orbit around the sun.  Considering that the earth, traveling through space at about 67,000 miles per hour, takes a year go circle the sun, that’s one enormous chain of American debt.  Astronomical, really.”

F As noted yesterday, the debt will be a lot bigger by the time the Republican leadership has finished inflating it.  And nearly four-fifths of it will have been racked up under just three of our 43 Presidents:  Reagan, Bush, and Bush.  But at least assault weapons are back for sale and you can buy them at gun shows without a background check.  Modiques, modiques, modiques.