Giving Up

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Woke to the news of another person being pushed into an oncoming subway train in NYC.

Read the report on the funeral of the firefighters who were gunned down near Rochester by some raving lunatic.

Followed that up with some news about a woman who posed as the aunt to one of the victims of the Newtown shooting. She was collecting money that was donated for one of the kids.

Then there was the news of the high taxes as we roll over that damn Cliff.

The Yankees still don't have a right-fielder who can hit from the right side of the plate.

I headed to a job site. There were about ten masons in the trailer drinking coffee. One of them was on his phone when he announced that three cops had been shot at the police station in New Jersey.

Gun control was discussed.

"We need the Wild West," one guy said. "If everyone had a gun there'd be more fear."

"I vote for a hanging, once a week, in the public square," another guy said. "We can sell it like a game show. We pick 3 of the worst criminals that week and ask them questions. The one who loses gets hung, and the other two go to jail without passing go."

"We have to make it tougher for lunatics to get guns," I tried.

"Everyone is a lunatic these days," the guy to my left said.

"We definitely can't calm down the violence without first amping up the violence," the guy to my right said. "Even if the gunmen shoot themselves at one of these scenes we need to gather their body up, hang it and shoot it some more."

I laughed.

"I mean it," the guy said. "It'll make these guys think twice."

I didn't want to state the obvious in that the guy hanging there probably wouldn't care about extra bullets after the first one killed him.

"We need to get the mental hospitals back up and running," the guy across from me said. "We all know who's crazy, but we just let 'em walk the streets. If we pass out a test and they fail it, they have to check themselves into the nuthouse."

"A few of you might fail," I said.

"Then lock us up," the guy to my left said.

"But don't mess with our f%&*ing guns," the guy to my right exclaimed.

I actually do give up.

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