Dr. Ignatius Piazza’s announcement a little over three days ago that Front Sight Firearms Training Facility would be offering free, comprehensive firearm training to designated School Safety Monitors from any and all schools across the nation caused not a small amount of stir. Not surprisingly, many teachers, administrators and parents were frightened by this notion. Many conservative thinkers (that’s small “c” conservative, not big “C” Conservative) are convinced that guns are evil; to them the very thought of putting them into schools is anathema.

Ignatius Piazza is the founder and director of a large firearms training resort in the Nevada desert. The Front Sight Firearms Training Institute is a roughly 45 minute drive from the Las Vegas strip. Dr. Ignatius Piazza, a former chiropractor who opened the institute in 1996, asserts that he has trained tens of thousands of people to correctly operate firearms. The institute offers training courses in handguns, rifles, shotguns, rifles and submachine guns. The institute also offers training in martial arts and other forms of self-defense. Dr. Ignatius Piazza is himself a certified combat master in four different firearms, making him more than qualified to offer training courses. Dr. Ignatius Piazza is also the creator of a reality show airing on Versus (VS) network entitled “Front Sight Challenge”. Piazza hired a producer and director himself and sold the completed product to Versus network after three months of filming. The show places 40 law enforcement officers in competition against 40 citizens aged 15 to 65. The competitions on the show are designed to test the contestant’s skills with a variety of firearms, including handguns, rifles, shotguns and submachine guns.

The guru and her husband were at Jazz Fest in New Orleans this weekend. We go every other year to enjoy the music as well as to remind ourselves why we don't stay out all night overindulging any more.

In the midst of three days of fun, frivolity and fantabulous jazz I, of course, got to thinking about advocacy. I mean, wouldn't you? And this wasn't just in a daiquiri-induced haze while wandering around the French Quarter. No, in fact, I was struck by the similarities between Jazz Fest and every advocacy campaign with which I've been ever been affiliated.

The recent tragedy at Virginia Tech illuminates the colossal failure of government and public policy to all our citizens who have mental disabilities and are ignored, denied. blurred, blamed and are invisible. The Federal Government should lead in establishing an environment of reality and acceptance of treatment without the ignorant stigma of shame. Mental problems are just as legitimate as a cut needing stitches or a heart attack. Yet people who seek help for a psychological problem are still looked upon as flawed and blamed for not being able to handle their own problems.

Why is it that education is never geared towards the majority?

Does that sound harsh? Well, that's certainly the impression you would get if you listened to the latest debate about education in England. Check your daily newspaper right now, and you'll see it concerns our Conservative Party's reluctance to endorse the idea of building new Grammar Schools. I know all about them, all right. At the tender age of 11 I was thrown into the '11-Plus' Exam that we had in Britain at the time. For some reason, maybe more good luck than judgement, I did well. That allowed me into one of the top Grammar Schools in my city, where I stayed for the next 7 years. Later, my mother proudly told me, 'Son, you managed to get into the top 2 per cent in the test'.

I decided to do some research on Cuba's healthcare system. as we excitedly wait for film maker Michael Moore's new masterpiece,"Sicko,"

"Sicko" spotlights the negligent U.S. healthcare system. In a brilliant example of contrast, Moore takes 911 fire fighters and rescue workers with life threatening lung problems their health insurance policies refused to cover, first to the U.S. Post Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, where care was refused; then to Havana, where the doctors there happily treated them.