Next on NPR: Gun Talk with Stanley

Like so many West-Coast Urban Liberals, I have long held to the highly dubious yet strangely plausible theory that every gun-loving, gay-hating southern redneck harbors a deep and powerful desire for same-sex love. In a similar way, I also believe that every NRA-bashing West-Coast Liberal similarly harbors a secret desire to fire a powerful handgun. This has been true of me for years, but I've been "out of the closet" for awhile now. Mrs. Man was on board and we checked out the possibility of going to a gun club in Portland, but it was going to cost around USD 250.00 to get started which seemed a little pricey so we decided to defer our dream and as per the usual with such things, it dried up like a raisin in the sun. But to my surprise and joy, just nine months later, came the magical day when my sister stumbled across an ad for Samui Shooting Sports. She quickly wished she hadn't mentioned it, and it was soon apparent that she had an aggressive lack of interest in participating in spite of (or perhaps because of) my prodding. As for the shooting itself: I shot a .45 and a 9mm with mixed success. It definitely reminded me of what I've only known academically before: Handguns are hard to shoot, and you sure as hell can't hit anything unless you line up and aim carefully. Other than that, the experience was not magical. I still favor restricting the rights of gun owners to the point that practically all the fun is taken out of accidentally shooting one's neighbor.

We're in Bangkok now, in a backpacker friendly neighborhood, next door to a bar that plays M.I.A. and The Roots and serves a good Mojito but occasionally charges you for ten when you only drank six. Today: Exploring. Tonight: Drinking.