‘I was wrong’

She’s still wrong about most things, but at least Thanksgiving dinner with her sister won’t be as awkward now:

Things I learned today

Dryer Vent

  1. Don’t cheap out on any duct work that involves venting carbon monoxide.
  2. It’s not just women who pissed off about Roe. The plumbing guy who worked on the vent is maybe early 30s, long hair, bunch of tattoos. Could have been a Trumper. Told me he never voted before, but he will now. “You’re telling me my little girl can get raped, and she has to carry that child? No fucking way!” That is a GOOD dad.
  3. I am cautiously optimistic.

Memorial Day

American, Like Mississippi

On Memorial Day, we observe the deaths of soldiers because they died “for our freedom.” We should add an observance for all the people who died of gun violence because, at least according to the politicians, they also “died for our freedom.” (You know, the freedom to accept large cash donations from the gun lobby.)

I’ve said for years that people who live outside major cities have a very different perspective on guns. (As you’ve seen here from my friend Boohunney.) Here, they’re nothing but weapons of death and destruction. We don’t hunt deer on the streets of Philadelphia, we hunt human beings.

And of course, we have the inevitable reality of the people who die from stray bullets. At least once a month, someone dies here in their bedroom or while playing video games when a bullet blows through the brick walls of a house.

We have mass shootings almost every day. But for some reason, they don’t make the national news. Just another drive-by shooting, just another dispute between drug gangs.

And more funerals for young men who haven’t even graduated high school. It makes me so sad.

This is just the past few days. I probably missed some:

Man, 49, shot in the back and killed in North Philadelphia

Double shooting in Fairhill kills 1 man, injures 1 woman, officials say

Nine-Year-Old and His Father Killed in Drive-By Shooting in Philadelphia

Police: Triple shooting injures man and 2 teens in Logan

Multiple shootings kick-off violent Memorial Day weekend in Philadelphia

Police: Triple shooting leaves 2 teens critically injured in Penn’s Landing

4-year-old child wounded, hospitalized after West Philadelphia shooting

Man dead, 2 women injured in triple shooting in East Germantown, police say

Police: 1 man fatally shot and woman, 25, injured in Kensington double shooting

 

Tragedy