Is Paranoia becoming a National Disease?

Sorry to have been absent from the blog for so long.

My parents are both terminally ill and I have had my hands full caring for them, even with the help of a paid caregiver. For a time I tried to keep up with the blog, but the hours needed for reading daily papers, checking other blogs and news sites, and just getting my thoughts straight in my head so they would make sense to others were things I had little time or patience for.

Things are not getting better with my parents, but I have decided to update the blog from time to time when I can, which translates to - when something I happen to read or see on the news really outrages me and prompts me to carve out some time to chime in.

This morning I read that the credit card bill working its way through Congress - a bill to protect consumers from predatory credit card practices and outrageous interest rates - has had an amendment attached that has nothing to do with credit cards and everything to do with the paranoid Republican Party.

Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, who also happens to be a medical doctor, proposed the amendment that would allow people to carry loaded guns in national parks.

This is simply incredible. What on earth is Coburn thinking? Obviously, he's not. We certainly don't need gun nuts carrying their guns into family parks where stray bullets could cause death or injury. We don't need Yosemite turned into the Wild West.

What is the matter with these people? Are they so indebted to the gun lobby that they feel they must create more customers for them? Or are they so paranoid that they believe they must carry weapons even in beautiful places like Yellowstone or The Grand Canyon?

Tom Coburn should know better. He is a medical doctor. He knows what bullets do to the human body. No medical doctor who has a brain and a conscience should ever advocate for the gun lobby.

If people are so paranoid that they believe they must arm themselves in some of the most beautiful places in our country, where people go to hike, fish, swim, picnic, and just take in nature's beauty, then they should stay home. They are the ones we should be afraid of anyway, as they are the ones who would probably have an impulsive trigger finger and end up killing some innocent child.

With Dick Cheney running around accusing Obama of making the country less safe, and people like Coburn insisting we allow shoot-outs in our National Parks, we see that what drives the Republican Party, along with an isatiable quest for unlimited power, is pure paranoia.

And 27 Democrats votes for the amendment. They should be ashamed.