Yesterday was... disconcertingly warm, wouldn't you say?
So Marco Rubio got grilled like a kebab at CNN's town hall meeting on gun control last night. Props to the senator for being the only Republican to face the heat — as if he had a choice, given where he's from — and for showing some softening in his stance on regulation. Props rescinded, however, for his sidestepping a question about whether or not he'd stop taking NRA money; Rubio claimed that his pro-gun legislative bent comes not from being bought and paid for, but is simply him serving the will of the "millions of people that agree with the agenda." Uh, really?
In other post-Parkland news, local high school students participated in a peaceful national walkout, leaving class for 17 minutes to pay tribute to the 17 people who lost their lives in last week's shooting and to call attention to the need for stricter gun laws. Where there is will, there is hope. Go get 'em, kids.
Not every kid, of course, is down with a peaceful and progressive future. Two Bay area schools were locked down yesterday over threats of violence, one in Bradenton and one in Pasco. You know, I'm not an across-the-board parent-blamer, but does anybody else wonder if this shit would be happening every day if folks were getting billed for law-enforcement resources brought to bear as a result of something their kid wrote on their Facebook page or a bathroom wall in a fit of self-involved idiocy?
And finally, in non-school-shooting-related news (yay!), Tripadvisor says Clearwater Beach is the best damned beach in the whole U.S. of A. Which... hey, no offense to Clearwater Beach, but letting the people who rate shit on Tripadvisor pick the best beach in the country is like letting the dudes who roast the Applebee's where the girl who "friendzoned" them works on Yelp pick the nation's finest vegan food truck.
