Stacy Horn

A friend of mine (Mikal Gilmore) tweeted: That old line that if you outlaw guns only outlaws will have guns is, in fact, an ideal we should consider aspiring to. I’ve never heard this point made before, and now I’m surprised I haven’t. If only outlaws had guns, would more lives be saved or lost? Here are the figures I found:

– Every time a gun injures or kills in self-defense, it is used:

11 times for completed and attempted suicides (Kellermann, 1998, p. 263).
7 times in criminal assaults and homicides, and
4 times in unintentional shooting deaths or injuries.

– Higher household gun ownership correlates with higher rates of homicides, suicides, and unintentional shootings (Harvard Injury Control Center).

– In one year, guns murdered 17 people in Finland, 35 in Australia, 39 in England and Wales, 60 in Spain, 194 in Germany, 200 in Canada, and 9,484 in the United States. [The year for those figures is 2008.]

I got these facts from the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence website.

In the upper-right hand corner of the website there’s a live update of shootings in America. Right now it says 54,455 were shot so far this year in America—it went up three as I typed that!! It’s now 54,458! By the time I finished uploading the photographs below it went up to 54,464. Now 54,466. 196 people have been shot so far today in America. Christ.

Update: I found out later that the figures from the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence website are estimates based on the statistics from previous years. Very misleading and annoying!
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Shots of helicopters from my Audubon cruise last weekend. Between the boat I was on and the helicopters, I couldn’t get anyone to stop moving long enough to get the shots I wanted.

From the White House website:

“Today, the Obama Administration announced the President’s plan to create a national Science, Math, Technology, and Engineering (STEM) Master Teacher Corps. The STEM Master Teacher Corps will begin in 50 locations across the country, each with 50 exceptional STEM educators. Over the next four years the Corps will expand to include 10,000 of the best STEM teachers in the nation. In joining the STEM Master Teachers Corps, these educators will make a commitment to champion the cause of STEM education in their respective communities, and will receive additional resources to mentor math and science teachers, inspire students, and help their communities grow.”

This won’t make the news of course, but more here.

Signs in windows.

There was an incredible storm last night; monsoon rains, lightening that looked like it was going to slice the building across the street in half. But the most dramatic was all the chunks of hail that came down in such numbers I was sure all my windows would shatter. It was like machine guns spraying my apartment from all sides.

The cats were relatively calm until a particularly big one hit, which was every few seconds, and then they’d look up, all “WTF??” For the most part they were, “Why are you running around with your camera? Is something happening? Because we’re cool.”

This is looking out the window over the airshaft. It doesn’t capture the excitement, but I like the dark, dreary, New York City tenement look of it.

It’s crazy, I suppose, how attached I get to tv characters. I still miss everyone from In Plain Sight, which ended its run last summer. (Sob.) But Warehouse 13 starts up again on Monday, July 23rd. One of the funniest series on tv.

Even better, we now have the thoroughly charming Bunheads. If you loved Gilmore Girls (same creator) you’ll enjoy Bunheads. Sutton Foster, the lead, is completely lovable, the girls are great, and the relationship between Sutton Foster’s character and Kelly Bishop’s (from Gilmore Girls) is … I hate to say it because I think it might turn some people off, but … it’s … oh, I’m just going to say it, it’s heart-warming. Okay? Sue me. It’s heart-warming. I like heart-warming. I miss this kind of smart dialogue, welcome back Amy Sherman-Palladino.

In other words: tv life is good.

Update: I forgot, Political Animals. It’s got my attention. I hope it gets better, but so far, I’m in. Weak link, the squandering of the great Ciarán Hinds. Strongest link, the relationship between Sigourney Weaver and Carla Gugino’s characters.

Also, Newsroom. I don’t hate it as much as everyone else. I’m still in. But I do hate what Sorkin does with all his female characters. And apparently he still hasn’t recovered from the internet shellacking he was subjected to all those years ago (it was when he won an Emmy for the West Wing episode, “In Excelsis Deo,” and he was less than gracious toward the co-author of the script). The Social Network didn’t sufficiently neutralize the narcissistic injury and he continues to nurse it in this show.

Every day, on the way to swimming, I pass by this fantastic 70’s style poster. Takes me back.

I got this mailing where I could sign a postcard supporting the ban of extra large soda and then send it back, postage paid. Instead, I wrote “I support this ban and your effort would be better spent toward changing the laws against medicinal marijuana.” I put that in the mail.

I’m sure the mailing was paid for by a soda company, or a company selling soda, and so my note would be ignored, but it felt good saying what I said.

One World Trade Center from a Hudson River point-of-view.