Mark Simon

The annual celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence is a few days away.

This is always a good time to reconsider that we, by virtue of being Americans, are “endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable right, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

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(14) comments

acomo

Mark- you write that the San Carlos gun shop did not contribute to the proliferation of guns in our county/state/nation. That shop has been in business for over sixty years. I'm guessing that in that time period, they have sold tens of thousands of firearms. To claim that those sales did not contribute to the proliferation of guns in our society doesn't seem to make much sense.

LittleFoot

What does a "proliferation" of legal gun sales have to do with anything?

acomo

I don't know...he used the term. Ask him. I'm just responding to it.

LittleFoot

Do you think legal gun sales are bad?

Terence Y

GE52, your numbers (not sure where you got them or whether you picked them out of the air) support Mr. Simon’s claim more than yours. From 2000 to 2020 (likely higher in 2021 and 2022), there has been a low of 400,000 and a high of over 1.2 million firearms sold annually in CA. Per your guess of tens of thousands of firearms sold, it means they sold approximately 1666 guns per year, at most - so about 0.14% to 0.42% of all guns sold annually in California. I’d say that at those percentages, those sales did not contribute to the proliferation of guns in our society, in any sense. Feel free to check the math or make another reasonable guess.

acomo

That particular gun shop has been in business for over sixty years. Try again.

Terence Y

GE52, I’ve accounted for 60 years in business. What’s the problem? Or, should I ask, what’s the solution, since you don’t agree with my numbers? Please try again.

Terence Y

Mr. Simon – I almost couldn’t enjoy today’s National Bacon Burnt End Day. When I began reading your last paragraph, it sounded as if you were hinting towards a permanent break. Thank goodness it’ll only be a month! Road trip across America? National Park visits? Staycation away from social media? I doubt you could stay away from all media. Vacationing to the dynamic destination known as Ukraine? Regardless, enjoy your well-deserved time off and I look forward to your return. The day now seems a bit brighter and I can return to burning the ends of my bacon. Because everything is better with bacon.

tarzantom

We should all take time to define happiness and then determine if it is really providing us happiness. I recently got a sports smart watch. I got it to better monitor my activity with the idea it would help me to be and feel healthier. The only thing it has done is make me feel dumb. The consolation prize is others seeing me wear it believe I am smart. That makes me happy. Seriously we receive the most happiness when we are in the service of others.

MichKosk

I doubt Emily Beach suddenly realized, well into her adult life, that her views align more with Democrats. She switched parties because it was politically expedient to do so. And now she is like a religious convert, having to swing far to the left in order to prove herself to the progressives.

aurosharman

You're mistaken here. Ms. Beach, like many people, was a Republican because her family were Republicans, back in the days when the parties were not so polarized, and moderate Republicans were a thing. I have friends who continue to stick with their Republican registration and vote for moderates in the primaries, out of some kind of sense of loyalty, and a hope that maybe someday the party will swing back towards the center. But I also have friends who are ex-Republicans who realized that the way the parties have evolved, they were more at home being moderate Democrats rather than continuing to identify with the GOP.

I think the idea that Emily's positions are "far left" doesn't stand up to scrutiny. She's a smart pragmatist who's going to do what she can to move policy incrementally towards making life better for most citizens.

Ray Fowler

Good morning, Mark

Your hiatus from writing weekly columns is well deserved. Have fun.

Thomas Morgan

I guess San Carlos will not ask voters to to increase taxes, since they eliminated a sale tax generating business. At least they did not try to buy a gun manufacturer.

Ray Fowler

Hello, Mark

Last summer, Longfellow hosted information sessions at their Redwood LIFE campus and one of the sessions focused on sustainability. At that session, I asked who is responsible for disposing of laboratory wastes? According to the Longfellow team, tenant labs contract with private services for this service. So, it appears there is no oversight by anyone in the private or public sector watching how labs dispose of lab wastes. If Longfellow or nobody else is monitoring the removal of lab wastes... what could go wrong?

I walk on the Bay Trail and on the levee in Redwood Shores near Longfellow's Redwood LIFE campus. I have observed a waste management vendor removing wastes in large lab containers stacked unsafely. I have also observed a lab package, from a lab on Longfellow's campus, left next to a trash receptacle on a public street a couple of blocks away from the lab. I have photographs of both incidents.

What could go wrong?

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