The dangers of gluttony and obsession

People are hoarders, it's in our programming. We evolved and survived by collecting things and food binging, and animal protein made our brains bigger, which made us more clever at killing animals, which added more protein, which made us more clever, etc. We now seem to be too clever, hoard and binge too much, and like guns. These things combine to create a problem.

I am at the Las Vegas airport, and once again run into a familiar advertisement for a gun store: a pretty model in black military-style clothing surrounded by guns (surrounded in this setting by slot machines). I have heard that America's problem today is not that there are more people owning guns - there are actually less - but that those who do own more and more of them.

If someone breaks into my house while I am out and steals some of my basses, the worst thing that will happen (besides a broken heart) is that, sometime in the future, a few more people will have and might possibly play a bass guitar. If someone breaks into the home of a gun collector and steals some of his guns, what's the worst thing that could happen?

(fill in latest news story here)

Yes, how nice that we live such easy lives that we can indulge in our gadget obsessions, and to each his own. But my bass collection/obsession is more about my ability to build my own basses on the cheap (mostly), and then play them to make music, while getting paid to do it. Unless you are a cop or soldier (private or public), a single handgun or rifle will take care of most all real or imagined fears, as most people will never actually use said weapon against another person in their lifetime. Any more than that is gadget porn at best, sociopaths paranoia at worst.

If you are not actually crazy, then try to keep these things in check. I'll try not to become John Entwistle with his hundreds of basses; you try not to become an armory. We'll all live longer.

Chocolate: some down at the Vegas airport, got a dark chocolate coconut and a salted caramel from Ethel M. Coconut was pretty good, a tiny $2 Mounds Bar with better chocolate. The caramel was too sweet as usual, but I wanted the salted chocolate (too many years with braces and I still can't enjoy caramel guilt-free). And as for this obsession, I could get fat, diabetes or both if I overdue it, but that just keeps me focused on quality over qty.

A good general life rule, actually. Keep focused people.