Wit and Erudition Postponed Briefly

At this point I owe several complex blog entries, including answers to chris_gerrib, lordofallfools and mwstover, as well as a post requested by carolecole. I'll get to those this afternoon after work.

Meanwhile, I'll leave you with these words, my response to a comment by cyperus_papyrus in the second gun thread from yesterday about whether and how I choose to shelter the_child.

I also understand there are vast risks everywhere. Part of being human is living as if we're not the one who will die today. That's normal and healthy. But the risks I accept for her in giving her freedom to walk to a friend's house, to climb a brick wall, to ride her bike, to ride in the car with me, to step into the shower -- those are all risks for which she and I both gain a clear benefit.

The risk which is forced upon me by pervasive gun ownership grants me no benefit at all, nor any benefit to her, and so I recoil from it. More than thirty sets of parents bore the cost of that risk yesterday through the deaths of their children, and what benefit do they show for it?