bert425

Absolutely gun control laws would have greatly limited the damage (as Elissa pointed out, why did he have access to 2 semi-automatic guns and a rifle?). edit to add from CNN live blog on this tragedy: yeah. . LESS gun control is what's needed. . right. I absolutely hate to play the "age" card (really, I do, as I don't know you and for all I know, you are a very well read & respected young man who is wise well beyond his years). . .but really, you are 16. As a man of 45, I've seen way, way too many of these tragedies. This hits me even harder than 9/11 did -- and that hit me really hard as I have lots of family in New York, some just blocks from the trade center. you as a youngster of 16, were only 5 when that happened. this is horrifying beyond belief to me, and if I had it in my power, I would ban every gun (from everyone) if it had even the slightest chance of preventing something like this from happening ever again. but I would be ok with just SOME legislation being put into place.

Now, I'm bound to rustle some feathers by what I am about to say, but realize that I mean not to insult anyone, only to enlighten. Is this a tragedy? Of course. Should we as a nation, as a species, mourn for this loss? Yes. But, we need to keep our heads level and not act until our heads have cleared. Gun control would not work in this case, in the draconian manner which I fear this guy is advocating for. Connecticut is already the fifth strictest state in the nation when it comes to gun control, behind New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and California. He already committed at least four felonies and three misdemeanors even if he didn't pull a trigger; two counts (technically) of criminal possession of a handgun (gotta be 21 to possess a handgun in CT, he was 20) three counts of criminal theft (though they're his parents' guns, his parents would definitely not have wanted to have let him have the guns for that purpose so I would count those as theft) as well as bringing guns onto a school ground, which is a class D felony in CT, on top of attempted mass murder of the first degree. (I'm not a lawyer, but this is my best guess.) Criminals are called criminals for a reason. They don't follow laws. Enacting more laws in order to try to stop those who don't follow laws in the first place is obviously illogical and only makes the lives of those that do follow laws and are of good moral standing that much more frustrated because they can do that much less in life. Now, would I be in support for trying to find a better way of psychologically evaluating these people and giving them proper treatment? Yes. But, the issue is that involving psychiatrists in applying for gun permits would make the process of getting a gun significantly more byzantine, because I highly doubt that psychiatrists can successfully make such a thorough and proper assessment of one's character in one short thirty minute session. (And you also have to make sure that the psychiatrists involved are able to control their bias enough so that they don't abuse their newly found power.) and in response, I point out that in China yesterday there was an attack on a school as well. a madman attacked 22 students with a knife. ZERO fatalities. ZERO vs 27 dead (with over 100 rounds fired in under 2 minutes). surely you see the difference here: Knife used because the perpetrator had no access to a gun. would the Monster in Conn. have committed something heinous regardless of if he had a gun or not? Very likely. Would we be mourning 20 Kindergarten students today if he had no access to a gun. absolutely not. Strict gun control needs to be addressed ASAP by our President and elected officials. at the VERY LEAST a complete and total ban on anyone other than law enforcement/military have access to automatic or semi-automatic weapons.

death toll is actually 27, and one "good riddance" (the piece of garbage that committed this act should NOT be counted as one of the dead). I'm having a hard time dealing with the fact this monster murdered 20 innocent Kindergarten kids. as has been stated, this is a Roller Coaster/Theme Park site, and I've never gotten really serious here. but writer Greg Rucka posted something on his blog that I feel is not only well written, but also EXTREMELY important. please give it a read. http://ruckawriter.tumblr.com/post/37927327450/our-hearts-our-broken-today meanwhile, I'll continue to send prayers out to the families affected by this monster today

I posted this in the "Pets" thread the other day, but hey, since you can see our Chanukah bush in this pic too, why not

check out how awesome this pic of my baby came out: my partner says it looks like I plugged in my dog. . LOL

I paid $3.09 in North Austin this morning

absolutely gorgeous pics, but I think the HRRR pic is my favorite. Four People hanging on for dear life, and Three People screaming in sheer ecstasy. that says it all about Roller Coasters!

don't feel bad. . I'm old too. the one I listed opened in 1978, and we rode it opening week

^^ and you can use your Discover cashback at Amazon without having to wait for the $50 "cashout" limit. I have a bunch of cards, but Discover is (by far) the one I use most.

Shock Wave (at Six Flags Over Texas), the week it opened (and we got "stuck" in the front row, since they assigned seats at the time! but it worked out well, since once I got that out of the way, I had no fear of riding Greezed Lightnin' at Astroworld (my home park), once that finally opened up to the general public. (we rode the crap out of that over the years, since we grew up w/ Astroworld season passes)

^^ GWAR is one of those bands that aren't so great on Vinyl/CD, but are absolutely fantastic and not to be missed live. I see them every time they come thru Town (and have for years), and ah. . . memories of when they played Dragon*con in Atlanta, and absolutely *destroyed* the just refurbished Hyatt Ballroom (even tho the Hyatt had covered the first 50 feet of floor/ceiling/walls with plastic). here's a pic of Slymestra w/ Jerry (from the Misfits) from one year they played (2000, I think) have you ever joined their fanclub? The t-shirt they give you is white, so you can wear it to the show and get it suitably stained

Asia (original Members) short show, only ~13 songs, but understandable, since they were playing two shows in a very small theater. most of them *looked* terrible, but dang if they didn't sound phenomenal! I only recognized about 7 of the songs, but the new material really did sound like classic Asia from the 80's.. particularly this song: and dang if Carl Palmer didn't blow me away (completely). Sitting front row, less than 20 feet from him was mesmerizing. . what a spectacular drummer

I am SERIOUSLY considering the Midwest trip. . if I go, maybe we can carpool down to San Antonio for the starting point

likely Disney I would guess. same reason there are so many gay comics fans that hang out at the site I go to (since the writer was on Wonder Woman for a long time, and many sought out her messageboard due to that). so yeah, Gail Simone's board has a lot of gay/bi/trans posters. I only go where I feel comfortable, and that includes here and at Gail's board. as to your clubbing comment. . oh yeah, agree. Tho that tends to be part of the "younger" culture, that many of the 30+ gays seem to out-grow. But it is an important part of the culture -- to go to a place and be surrounded by those who are like you, and won't judge you (well.. they'll judge you . . . just listen to about *any* Smiths song, but they won't base it on your sexuality ) oh, the stories I could tell about my ex, since he was "straight" until we met, so he wanted to do all the Parties/Clubs/Bars things. . stuff I had already gone thru and was over. It made for some interesting vacations!. . LOL

thanks yeah, it's shocking that we even synched as much as we are opposite, but we have a bunch of stuff in common too (theme parks being one of em -- tho these days, he won't go on many coasters, so he "waits". . LOL). and he can never EVER forget our anniversary, since we first met in person (our first date) on January 23rd 2004: 1/23/4 I told him a few years ago if he ever forgets that, I'll kill him

I was in a long distance relationship for 2 1/2 years with someone I met at Dragon*con. . so of course, he lived in Huntsville Alabama, and I lived in Austin Texas. but after that ended (honestly, if we lived in the same city we wouldn't have lasted that long), I met my soulmate online. at a "dating" site. and it turned out he lived in Austin less than 2 miles from me. and he grew up in Houston -- less than 2 miles from me. and we went to the same High School (but didn't know each other, due to an 8 year age difference (he's older than me)). we are 9 years in January so yeah. It will happen when it happens, and when it does, it's meant to be.

at Fiesta, Tx, I've discovered that several of the coasters have "big boy" seats. I guess maybe because San Antonio does seem to have a disproportionate amount of heavy folks? I've never had to use them (tho I have to REALLY suck in to get the harness to click down on Goliath), but I have seen them re-arrange folks to put some of the heavier guests into different seats . . which is part of the reason, at least I believe so, that Fiesta is so slow loading trains sometimes.

would this not make you Bi-sexual? or do you consider yourself more than that (for example, open to a relationship with Transexual -- which is something I would "list" under Bi-sexual anyways). one of my friends used to joke that he was "Try-sexual". . in that he has no preference whatsoever, and had no issues trying anything if the connection was there. maybe this is the term? (only because to me, I would think Pansexual would be open to *anything*. . such as those that fall in love and have sex with inanimate objects such as fences, carnival rides, or the Berlin Wall (and yes, this really *does* exist, and I make absolutely no judgement on it, just mentioning what I think of when I hear "Pansexual")

I hope the "fingers" are OK. . we were pretty drunk. (I'm the "Courtney Love"). and then these are from last year. I was King Diamond: my partner was a zombie: and the dog was a witch:

Robb, I hope you feel special! you enraged a troll enough to register on the site! whee! that's better than a loop-de-loo! (and honestly?. . you make the "hobby" look BETTER.. you are by far, more attractive (and thinner!) than most "enthusiasts" (myself included) that I see at parks).

the pier that they built "Pleasure Pier" on, has withstood many, many strong hurricanes (used to house a hotel). I'm sure the rides would get damaged by heavy storm surge, but the pier absolutely would survive and they would be able to rebuild.

what's funny, is I JUST watched these two on your youtube channel the other night. weird timing! (yeah, the looked awful, so no great losses).

they still have it. but both of their buffets have been overshadowed (at least in this foodies eyes). the Carnival World Buffet at Rio was once our favorite, but a couple of years ago we discovered the much better buffet at the "M" still on Las Vegas Blvd, but off strip (about 2 miles up from Mandalay Bay). then this past trip we discovered Wicked Fork (I think that is what it's called) at Cosmopolitan. We ate there a couple of times, and tho we did go to Rio for gaming, we did not eat at the buffet. as to the Seafood, which still has a great reputation, the Golden Nugget has a much better Seafood buffet on the weekends (Friday/Saturday). makes sense, after all, Golden Nugget *is* owned by Landry's (of the Seafood restaurant chains) these days. absolutely spectacular buffet, and worth the trip down to Freemont Street just for this buffet.

Went today for FrightFest, and the park was the most packed I've seen it in a long, long time. They were running all 3 towers on Scream. 1st time I've seen that in at least a couple of years. HUGE waits on every ride, with the exception of Goliath (which we rode twice back to back with almost no wait whatsoever). I guess it's odd placement just off the entrance plaza threw some folks off, and they simply missed that it's to the left. I mean, the wait on Poltergeist and Superman were hour+ easily. and leaving at 8pm?. . took us over 40 minutes to get out of the parking lot! (I don't know if there was an accident at that 4-way stop or what. . but sheesh, traffic did not move for 10 minutes at a time!) went to two shows, both of which were completely full. . but we stood in the back anyways, since someone we were with was in a wheelchair, so that worked out just fine. We were disappointed at the lack of decoration, the FrightFest stuff was really, really weak with the big exception being the "troll bridge" going from the main plaza into Spassberg, that was really well done. but almost no decoration in Fiesta Bay, the Western area, or Spassberg. Rockville had the same zombie theme as last year. Waterpark entrance also had the same "spider" theming as last year. no update on rattler, tho they have now walled off where Wagon Wheel was (and blocked the queue building). they *do* have a few Iron Rattler signs up, and they put up a small pavilion showing pics, and the animated display of the "new" coaster. I did ask the employee that was manning the pavilion if he knew if the station fly-by was going to be kept, or if it would just go into the station after the tunnel? Of course, he had no idea, but at least he admitted that much.

me in the "Pony Express" test seat at KBF a few years ago.