Fave Christmas Movies

So, I was all prepared to elaborate on my last post about the shootings at that mall in Omaha. For those outside of Colorado, you may or may not have heard that literally a day or two after that shooting, there was yet another shooting in Colorado Springs at two different churches. Again, by some lone, disgruntled Angry White Male. I had collected some comments that people wrote on the Denver Post right after it that I was going to use for my next article.

But then, I realized all of that was just plain depressing. And who really wants to focus on such negativity when we are supposed to be in a time of reflective peacefulness (a.k.a. Christmas). Right? And maybe I was just joining in the media frenzy of focusing on these types of events which in reality just brings more attention to them.

Who knows.

In any case, inspired by my friend Dave, I decided to instead write about my Favorite Christmas Movies of All Time.

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1. Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer

2. The Sound of Music

3. A Charlie Brown Christmas


4. The Polar Express

5. Miracle on 34th Street

6. Elf

7. How The Grinch Stole Christmas"

8. It's a Wonderful Life

9. Frosty The Snowman

10. Christmas Vacation


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

And to further put you in the Christmas spirit (as if the movies weren't enough!) - here is a link to some streaming semi- modern Christmas songs (no cheesy church music!) for your enjoyment...... :)

Main KBCO link to audio player

Or try this.

I am listening to it right now as I am working from home!

Happy almost- Christmas!
xoxo

Questioning my species once again

It's sad but true. As I said in my post about Virginia Tech, that was not the first of those types of shootings and certainly will not be the last.

The Omaha mall shootings just reaffirmed my belief that nothing is ever going to change in this country.

One difference being that apparently this guy *stole* the gun he used to kill all those people out Christmas shopping that day, but what difference does that really make? The gun was around, someone had it because hell yes, it's our constitutional freedom, and he could easily get it.

The media focus seems to be completely on how the shooter was this "mentally troubled" youth. It was the health system. Yes, that's right, that's what caused him to crack. The health system let him down.

From the Washington Post's "Mall Killer Had History of Mental Woes":
The state intervened after the family's health-care program refused to continue paying for the shooter's treatment at Piney Ridge, Landry said. But the health department terminated its care in August 2006 after Hawkins failed to comply with a community service requirement and a court declared him "nonamenable to further services," he said.
Landry said the department acted properly in closing the shooter's case, which did not represent "a failure of the system to provide . . . appropriate services." He said he did not think the state could have done anything more and that "all appropriate services were provided when needed for as long as needed."
He added: "It would be nice to have had a crystal ball. . . . Certainly, if we had known this was going to happen . . . we would have stopped it."

Could they have really stopped it? Really? Isn't that what they said about the Virigina Tech shooter: "if only we had known..." But there is no way you can know. This guy wasn't much different than your average joe, as was the Viriginia Tech guy.

OK so he was fired from McDonalds?? and broke up with his girlfriend?? Who doesn't go through something like that? And since when are those reasons to go and shoot up a mall?? No one could have possibly known.

Ultimately, it's just another case of some loser thinking that because his life is so pitiful, he can somehow justify taking the lives of others to make up for his sad and dejected life.

I can't help but feel like if he weren't so easily able to track down a gun, maybe he would've gone to that mall and thrown rocks at people. Or something equally stupid. Maybe.

I'm sure some people will say, oh, but even if we had gun control laws, people like this guy would still be able to track down a gun and use it. He would find a way. Maybe so, maybe not. But it might help to make it just that much harder. And just that many more people's lives might be around. And they might be here to thank us. Maybe.