HALLOWEEN SEASON IN MAINE

Saturday October 28, 2023 temperature 80 deg. and sunny

Monday October 30, 2023 temperature 33 deg. with snow.

If we don't like the weather here in Maine, we just wait a day or two.

the Ol'Buzzard

MASS SHOOTINGS DON’T HAPPEN HERE IN MAINE.

 

 

We sit up here in the northeast corner of the country and look down at the rest of the states as superficial and a little nuts.

 

My wife and I watched a recording last night then went to bed at about eight to read.   It wasn’t until we woke up this morning a six-thirty that we found out that there had been a mass shooting in Lewiston, a town of thirty-seven thousand – the second-largest town in the state.

 

Maine is the largest state east of the Mississippi river, and one-third of our state is wilderness and unpopulated.  Forty-four percent of Maine's population live in coastal towns that comprise only twelve percent of the states area.  Excluding tourism, logging is one of our largest industries.   It is hard to drive down any rural road and not be passed by a logging truck.

 

Because of Maine’s rural nature and the surrounding wilderness, hunting and fishing have historically been in the blood of Mainers.  As a result, we have one of the most lax gun laws in the nation. 

 

Perhaps it is time we address that. 

 

Our culture is changing.   Over the last few decades we have had more and more people moving to Maine and with them have come attitude changes.   We have a drug problem that is supplied from out of state, and this year we had white supremacists demonstrating in Portland, our largest city. 

For most of people of rural Maine we have believed that mass killings can't happen here. 

The man committing the atrocity in Lewiston had a profound and known mental problem, but he could not have accomplished the mass carnage that resulted without a weapon designed for the mass killing of human beings.

 

We will hear from Republicans' thoughts and prayers, and a diatribe about the need to address mental illness.  But it’s the gun.  

 

No one needs a semi-automatic assault weapon to hunt, and no one needs a pistol with more than a six-round capacity.  

 

When I came to Maine sixty years ago everyone in rural Maine owned multiple firearms: shotguns and rifles.   You were allowed to transport your rifle or shotgun in a gun rack or visibly in your car with the ammunition locked in your glovebox or trunk, provided you had a hunting license and it was open season.  You could own a pistol but could not transport it as it wasn’t considered a hunting weapon.  No one considered these laws constrictive.  There were only occasional gun deaths, mostly hunting accidents: a woman shot by a deer hunter in her backyard hanging out her clothes; a Navy man shot by his brother-in-law while deer hunting (it was rumored he abused his wife) – hunting accident. 

 

The gun culture in Maine has changed.   It was only a matter of time before the carnage reached here.

 the Ol'Buzzard

 

                                                                                    

 

 

 

 

 

THE DAY AMERICA DIES: TRUMP 2024

 

the Ol'Buzzard

TERRORISM IN THE MIDDLE EAST - ISRAEL ATTACKED

 

the Ol'Buzzard

TRUMP'S BLUSTER

 

The most difficult class in my college experience was Logic.   It was taught by a professor with demanding expectations.  

This morning as I looked over some Logic notes I was gobsmacked by recognizing similarities to  Donald Trump’s diatribes and logical argument fallacies.    

An argument can either be true or false.   The false argument premises are named in Logic.  

Argument ad Populum:   Everyone says it must be true; or true because many people believe it.

Argument ad Baculum:  A threat of force or coercion;  a negative consequence of holding a contrary opinion.

Argument ad Verecundiam:  The opinion of an authority is used as evidence.

Argument ad Absurdum:  Attempting to approve a premise by carrying it to an absurd conclusion.

Argument ad Ignorantian: A premise that is true because it has not been proven false: is false because it has not been proven true.

Argument Misericordia: Appeal to pity of self or others.

Argument ad Hominem:  Attack the character, motive, or some attribute of the opponent.

Argument ad Nauseam:  If it is repeated often enough it must be true.

Note that whenever Trump opens his mouth one or more of these fallacious arguments will stream out. 

the Ol’Buzzard