A yawning return

And sometimes you have to spell things out exactly for me, are you saying that Baldwin could have fired the gun without pulling the trigger?

Isn't that exactly what Mr. Beagles wrote?  Seems clear enough to me, maybe Uncle Ken should read it again.

In Balwin's (sic) case, the trigger did not need to be pulled for the gun to fire because he didn't fully cock it, he just pulled the hammer back and released it before it clicked into the cocked position.

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I try not to get sucked into these discussions (?) that don't really get anywhere but it's been a while since I've posted, might as well let you know I'm alive and lurking.

My point of view on many issues is that the root cause of social problems is the fact that human beings are just plain nuts.  I suspect that there is something in the human genome that causes people to go completely off the rails, unlike other life forms, at the slightest provocation.  A form of psychological rabies, perhaps?

This is a crackpot theory I've been giving a lot of thought to lately, considering the thousands of years human beings have had to work out some kind of stable way of living together.  A lot of societies, religions, and cultures have come and gone, all working towards the same goal of trying to live the good life, or something like that.  The fact that we are still working on it gives me a sliver of hope.  At least we don't have to see a pile of human skulls in the town square.

The odd thing, in my point of view, is that things are better than they have ever been.  It may not seem that way but media hype makes it seem like everything is going to shit when it really isn't.  I'm not letting myself get worked up about some of the things you guys like to chew on.  Like the old Cherokee guy, I'm particular about which wolf I'm feeding.

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Plenty of blame to go around for that shooting on the movie set but the gun was in Baldwin's hands, accident or not.  Firearm safety isn't complicated; children can be taught to handle weapons without difficulty.  I'll not go any further except to state that it's been more than fifty years since I've fired a weapon.  And the first time I squeezed a trigger was when I was 9 or 10 years old, a .22 rifle.  Then there were those times at the carnival-type shooting galleries, like the one at Riverview.  Lots of fun, as a recall, with some of the most inaccurate rifles imaginable.

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I don't see how "Old Betsy" fits into the bathroom incident unless Uncle Ken's imagination has gotten the best of him.  Artistic license, I'll allow it.

Speaking of artistic license, I've been watching a documentary (again) about Robert Williams, the painter and sculptor.  If you don't know the name you've probably seen his work; he's the real deal.  As a fan of the Lowbrow art movement, I really like his stuff.  Some lectures on YouTube are available, along with the documentary "Mr. Bitchin' "  I can confidently state that he is the quintessential American artist, the best ever.  Prove me wrong.

Even though I have some of his monographs and comic art he fell off my radar and I'm happy to have rediscovered him and his work.  It's amazing how beautiful and ugly  paintings can be at the same time, a perfect expression of "mind-blowing."