When MamaCharlie and I were younger, before the kids started popping up, we had an expression we used, to depict what we considered a "good night out". We called it "Makin' noise ... carrying on". So when we were heading out without a firm plan, one would ask the other "What are we gonna do?" The answer was often "You know...make a little noise...carry on". That lasted until we saw "Bonnie and Clyde"; then the answer could just as often be "We gonna have a time". (If you aren't dialed in, watch the movie...great scene between Warren and Gene). I any case, making a joyful noise was part of a good time for us in the day...and it didn't always have to be a loud noise.

Later on down the road, after the kids started showing up, and became mobile, active, and loud, we developed an new expression. It stemmed from so many years in government quarters in Germany with neighbors both vertical and horizontal. We were often visited by the downstairs neighbors with discussions about little feet thundering across our floor (their ceiling). We referred to this as "Thumping and Bumping". As in "Knock off all that thumping and bumping." I giggle nowadays when I hear those very same kids yelling at their kids to stop thumping and bumping. Heeheeheeee.

So the difference between thumping and bumping and making noise and carrying on is basically...who's making the noise and who doesn't like the noise. I am sure that when MC and me were making our noise...it was thumping and bumping to someone else. Likewise, the kids thought they were making noise and carrying on when we thought they were thumping and bumping.

And that is the problem with this week's rhetoric. Some folks are busy making their points...they are using the "tragedy" in Tucson to justify their assault on some of our basic constitutional rights. They are making noise and carrying on. The other side is using the occasion to spotlight what they see as the shortcomings of their political opponents. They are busy feeling offended and hurt because they have been targeted as part of the noise- making. So both sides are pointing and shouting to stop the thumping and bumping as part of their own making noise and carrying on. Whew...hope you could follow that.

I personally feel that a memorial service doesn't need to be a sobbing, severely somber event...but cheers and ovations and, as in the case of Wellstone's memorial, a party or rally atmosphere are not appropriate, either.

In any case, the words are flying; fingers are pointing; but scariest of all...those who make the laws are using the shooting to justify their ambitions and cover their fears. The most interesting thing, to me, is the congressmen who want to enact a law making it a crime to have a weapon within 1000 feet of a federal official. On the surface this doesn't seem too unreasonable. But look close and think. Why should a federal official have any right to be safer than you or me? And how do we recognize a federal official? Will they put them into uniforms? Sew a yellow patch on their back? That is one thing.

There has been a lot of pointing to the "right-wing" talk radio and its "inflammatory rhetoric". The Fairness Doctrine and other means to control content of programing are being suggested. In other words, if you don't like what the government is or is doing, just shut up. Never mind that First Amendment stuff...free speech is what the censors say it is.

And the gun control crowd sees this as another great opportunity to limit the ownership and use of guns. Bill Maher was on Leno the other night leading the charge. He is sure that you don't need a gun at all, let alone one that has a thirty-round magazine. I am not comfortable having people like Maher making decisions about my safety and security. Unfortunately, there's lots like him in congress. I don't even want to get into that argument; I am strongly in favor of gun ownership. Whichever side of the issue you fall on, you should be honest enough to realize that incidents like this should not be used as a basis for making that decision.

Okay, I am about done with this ramble. Not one of my most coherent efforts. I just get tired of all the gab on both sides and the way they will jump on any passing incident to ride toward their personal interpretation of the Bible or the Constitution. Disagreeing with the government or its custodians is not treason. Thinking that the president is incompetent and needs to be replaced is not racist, seditious, or grounds for an investigation.

As one of the one-hundred-million-or-so gun owners in the USA that didn't shoot a congressperson last weekend, I salute all the others in that same category. And I leave it to you to decide if I am Making Noise and Carrying On...or Thumping and Bumping