That’s the running count of how many deaths have occurred due to guns in the United States since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Meanwhile, let’s talk about the not-dead shooting victims.

Like 10-year-old Ka’nard Allen of New Orleans.

He was shot in the face on Mother’s Day during a happy neighborhood parade. This is after his 5-year-old cousin was murdered and he was shot at his 10th birthday party last May. And after his father was killed in October 2012.

This is a national tragedy. And it’s a travesty that this nation doesn’t think it’s a tragedy that 19 people got shot on Mother’s Day.

He wants an adult to start peeling an orange for him because he can’t get it started himself. He wants to dunk an empty juice bottle into a garbage can and launch high, elegant roundhouse kicks at the pail. He wants to get on that black four-wheeler and drive it off the grass speckled with broken glass, watching for traffic, circling on Simon Bolivar — fast. He’ll even give you a ride on the back.

This isn’t the most eloquent way to sum it up, but all I can say right now is, “We fucking suck.”  Hang in there, Ka’nard. People you’ve never met are thinking of you.

[NOLA Times-Picayune]

Even if it moves slowly, it just might overtake you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fX3PkXiYO4k

And more fun stuff here …

Worth checking out just for the arrangement of the Pines. The recording was quashed in 1975 when Hawthorne was ejected from the field after they were protested successfully for having overaged members. Some of the guys in the drum line looked like they were in their 30s but no one could remember a competitive protest that put out a national championship contender.

Read more »

Best Music Video in (or near) the world:

And if you’re not following @Cmdr_Hadfield, well, WTF?

Title: “Adulting: How to Become a Grown-up in 468 Easy(ish) Steps”

Author: Kelly Williams Brown

Rank: 36

Blurb: “Just because you don’t feel like an adult doesn’t mean you can’t act like one.”

Review: “Being an adult is hard. It takes practice. It takes commitment.”

Customers Also Bought: “F*ck! I’m in My Twenties” by Emma Koenig

Footnote: At 54, we’ve learned that the easiest way to conquer those 468 steps is to ignore most of them.

Adulting [Amazon]

Buy or Die [Stinque@Amazon Kickback Link]