Knee Deep in Hair Tufts

Tags

death, guns, Health care, loons from the right, marriage equality

It’s fairly easy to pick out uber conservatives (aka nut jobs) today. They are the bald ones, having pulled out every last hair upon their holy heads at the vile in-your-face rebuke offered them by “those five unelected lawyers” who have seemingly taken to poking a stick at family values and the American way all in one fell swoop.

I arrived home yesterday to find my Better Half (aka the Contrarian) all dressed up and meeting me at the door. After the usual, “how was the pool?” dialogue, I was unable to contain my query any longer. “Why are you all dressed up in your big-boy clothes at 9:30 in the morning?” i asked.

“Guess you didn’t hear the news,” he grinned. “Gay marriage is now the law of the land, and according to WorldnetDaily, the next step is mandatory marriage. I don’t even have a boyfriend yet, but I’m ready if anyone shows up at the door as my designated gay-marriage mate.”

“I won’t make the cake you know,” I reminded him, “since it’s  my constitutional right based on religious freedom not to be forced to sanction your unholy alliance. Besides, since I’m gonna wear white, I don’t wanna take a chance on getting ganache all over me.”

I have no doubt that similar scenarios were played out all over America.

It’s now a day later, and well, we are being patient. I do hope the Committee to Assign picks a suitable dude for my dude. We are still negotiating whether I’ll get my own room or just get a King-size bed.

Oh, in case you have any “in” with that committee, we just want to say, we are open to most anything but we both dislike back hair if you don’t mind not sending that type. Otherwise we’re pretty open-minded.

On the other side of the ducat you will find your pass to health care still intact. Much as the uber right was praying to see millions of weeping ex-insurance holders collapsing in cancerous piles, all to the tune from The Life of Brian–bring out your dead!

Justice Roberts is being hung in effigy throughout the south and other hidey-hole enclaves throughout the lower forty-eight. “Traitor” is being bandied about and serious inquiry is afoot to determine whether the Chief has middle initials of B.A. and no I ain’t talkin’ about Bachelor of Arts.

It’s been a thoroughly bad week for the side that hides its hatred and bigotry behind phrases like “religious freedom” and “work ethic”. As usual they betray themselves in ‘splainin’ that all they want to do is punish the sin and give charity as they see fit without being taxed. Cuz we are so wilfully caring of our fellow-man and woman ya know.

Meanwhile, another  very right-wing piece of refuse, killed a bunch of surely very nice folks at a Black church in Charleston S.C. The Foxy Fools immediately decried this “attack on Christianity” furiously trying to pretend it had nothing to do with race hatred, since we live in a post-racial loving America.

Inevitably, somebody mentioned that once again, mass murder by guns in the hands of a loon. And just as surely,  the Foxy Fools  recalling their Murdock learnin’ responded, “the libs are trying to politicize this tragedy once again! Shame on them!” This while, Wayne La PeePee, stuttered in a whisper, “tell ’em to buy all the guns they can, cuz that Nazi-Arab-lovin’ usurper in the GOD-DAMN IT, CAN’T YOU SEE IT’S A WHITE HOUSE, is surely gonna take them away from you, declare martial law and declare himself Emperor for life.” Wayne’s phone went off, to the tune of cha-ching.

Meanwhile, I engage in yet another fruitless discussion with idiots. “If the crime rate has gone down in the last 25 years, as you say, well it must be because our gun laws are perfectly strict now,” said the lady who is too lazy to even determine whether crime is down as “I say”, let alone offer a rational explanation. Actually, the drop in crime is so significant that it has spawned several major studies done by illustrious public institutions like the U of Chicago, and the Brennan Center for Justice.

Guess what? It has to do with abortion (meaning unwanted children are not raised in poverty and do not fall victim to crime as a means to get out), and the passing of clean air/water act which cleaned up the lead in our old housing units and the neurological damage is does. Or better policing. Open carry and conceal carry? Zero impact on falling crime rates. Strict gun laws? Huh?

Now that’s gotta twist some knickers don’t it? Things the GOP and the so-conservative-it-hurts group have opposed. Abortion and regulation are ugly words to a Rightie.

So how about that Confederate flag thing? Yep, as soon as the GOP gave up any hope that the Foxy Fools could work their magic and turn the issue of a mass shooting to serve their own purpose, well the GOP turned on a dime and became “outraged” and all agreed that Nickki Haley was “courageous” in doing the “right thing”. Course the Nickster saw the flag as no problem just a few months earlier when running for her re-election.

“Why the CEO’s I’ve talked to haven’t ever mentioned that Confederate flag,” she assured us, so what’s the problem? Black folk, you see, did not figure into her determination. Why should they care?

Meanwhile, Governor Abbott in Texas proves what was deemed unbelievable only a few months ago. Somebody can do a worse job than Rickie “glasses” Perry. Abbott, appointed some woman to head up the state’s Board of Education. Which is of course not remarkable, except the woman appointed home schools her kids.

Did you read that? She home schools her kids because she doesn’t believe in the public school system. How rich is that? Seriously?

I’m keeping a close tab on all points of egress from the US. There are scores of drooling half-wits who claim that if either Obamacare or gay marriage came to fruition they would be movin’ elsewhere. I want to be sure to be there to wave them goodbye. And then burn the damn ramp to the boat once they are aboard. Good riddance!

Oh and California is facing a water shortage. Actually they are facing NO FUCKING WATER. This lead one lady to blame it on gays. God surely hates the wrong people screwing each other she bellowed and will punish US. And the rest of the thirsty bunch is suing to make sure they get their fair share of dry sand.

I gotta say, it’s been a good week for sanity. If you sort out the bullshit.

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And What Was the Point Again?

Tags

and learned again, crap I learned, guns, Humor, ranting, satire, unlearned

Or: I am a masochist and I love it!

I was thinking about doing a post about Planet Earth traveling through the Backwards Belt. Trust me, it exists, astronomers just haven’t discovered it yet.

Since we passed through that belt of backwardness, everything pretty much means the opposite of what it portrays itself as meaning.

Example:

Stated Truth: Rick Perry signs into law a bill that is designed to help ensure women’s health safety. It inadvertently might make it more difficult for clinics who do abortions as a minor part of their total service.

Actual Truth: Rick Perry and those like him hate abortions because they have found it useful to portray themselves as “good Christians” for political purposes and making regulations (which are absolutely a job killer in any other arena according to the GOP mantra), so onerous that it essentially puts most women’s health care clinics in Texas out of business and thus makes abortions unavailable to millions of Texas women is the real goal.

Another example:

Stated Truth: Republican controlled states throughout the nation pass laws making it much harder to vote for their citizenry under the stated purpose to reduce the fraudulent use of the ballot to dilute the value of real voters vote, and thus to alter the real will of the people.

Actual Truth: Republicans can’t will elections because they have so alienated the vast majority of middle America, so the only effective way to get a win is do make it as hard as possible for voters who are likely Democratic voters to cast their vote.

Another example?

Stated Truth: The only defense against a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun. Guns don’t kill people, people kill people. The government is determined to take away your guns because it knows that it can do anything once you have no recourse through armed rebellion.

Actual Truth: We hope you will buy more guns in an effort to feel safer from the government and if you aren’t afraid of the government, we will do everything we can to make you afraid, in the hopes that you will buy more guns. We get rich and powerful that way, and we really like that.

Okay, so you know all this stuff already. Of course you do. You wouldn’t be reading this blog unless more or less you agreed with me. We all have learned that. We all started out on this Internet adventure thinking that we would have a forum finally to talk about issues and hash out differences, and come to agreement, more or less.

We knew there were crazy people, but we didn’t think they were us. But they are.

Because if you care about what is happening to this country, then it makes you crazy.

If you don’t believe me, read this: The Most Depressing Discovery about the Brain Ever.

Except, that it’s not. There are TONS of similar studies. Heck Jonathan Haidt’s book, The Righteous Mind, is ALL about the same subject.

The truth is, the more you care, the less you are persuaded that you are wrong by facts. You look the facts straight in the face, and your lyin’ eyes, well lie. The remark attributed to  Richard Pryor comes to mind: “Who you gonna believe, me or your lyin’ eyes?”

We are about to go round and round in this circus of guns. After yesterday, and another mentally disturbed man, with a history of inappropriate use of weapons, manages to buy more, and walk into a facility and start killing folks. And WE WEEP that we are such a place where people who are ill are ignored as long as they stay out of our way and don’t gum up our life.

And the head of the trauma center Dr. Orlowski said this:

And we will all say similar things, and we will all mean it, and the crazies on the other side will mean what they say, because they really believe that we’re coming to take their guns and then force them onto communes where they will eat three squares a day and pray to Allah upon pain of death, and that there are death panels, and that Obama is a Kenyan Muslim, and that quiet is kept, black and brown people just not aren’t quite like “us” and never will be, *wink* *wink*.

And I think they are loon crazy bastards and I wish they would just tend to their Ice Road Truckers and Boo Boo whoever that is, and stop meddling with adult issues. Because I can’t convince them that they are wrong on just about everything, and I am told that I am not better, just the other side.

And I HATE believing that, which is quite a corker when you think about it, because if I say, they are wrong, and I’m right, and I’m not like them, then according to the professorial class, I am but proving their point. So.

But I AM NOT LIKE THEM.  I do listen to other views, and I do change my mind, so how can I be like them?

But I sure can’t change them.

So let’s just face it.

All of us bloggers who are pounding away at the keys because we want to make a difference?

Well, we aren’t.

BLOGGING: WELCOME TO MY DIARY.

Or to be “today” let’s call it journaling.

Or, to be cool, let’s call it a rant.

Crap, I sometimes wish I was just part of the great grey cloud that only cares about whether my pinochle game will be disrupted, and of course what they are serving for lunch today at the senior’s center.

Chicken ala King anyone?

 

Why I Remain Optimistic

Tags

editorial, guns, law, political awareness, society, Trayvon Martin, Zimmerman

It was a sobering Sunday. Sobered by the awful truth that once again, the judicial system has failed us as a society. It is intended to do so from time to time. It needs be that way if we are to have a better than even chance of not convicting on whims and possibilities. But that does not lessen the pain in the individual case.

Progressives have a serious flaw in our desire for fairness, equality, and laws that “do no harm” to the greater number. We can only equate “us” to the great us of humanity, and humanity isn’t there yet. Confused?

It is seemingly a proven fact that the great march toward more “civilized” behavior is the product of the group, the tribe. We collect into groups for some purpose that seems to serve the individual, but along the way, the group can and does, when working properly, become more important than the self. It allows us to be altruistic, compassionate, and so forth even when not to our individual interests.

Failure to identify with a group leads to what Émile Durkheim’s called anomie wherein there is a mismatch between what the individual conceives of as societal norms and what the society does. In other words, people become adrift, and unconnected to the larger world about them. Progressives push for a world wherein everyone is provided for at some basic level. They stress the individual and they/we argue that “we” are one in our humanity–that is our group. Most of humanity is no where near that place in their own head. There are still too many “others” out there. So Progressives push for a world that the world is not yet ready for.

What has that got to do with Trayvon Martin? Nothing much, and almost everything if you will bear with me.

A young black male travels the streets of a neighborhood at night. He is “profiled” by a man who has self-styled himself as some sort of neighborhood sheriff, carrying his weapon, patrolling his self-designated neighborhood, looking for “bad” guys. He comes equipped with a radio to call the real police should he come upon one of his prey. He stalks the young man, until in fear the young man stops and confronts his stalker. Some sort of physical altercation ensues, and the wanna-be cop now succumbs to a fear of the youngster he stalks, and shoots and kills him.

A law allows him to do this. This law says that he can “stand his ground” if fearful for his personal safety. Even when that situation was entirely self-created. As one twittered or facebooked, “wow, I can pick out people I don’t like, stalk them until they turn to confront me, and then claim I’m scared and kill them. What a cool law!”

It’s a law brought to you by the NRA and ALEC. It is a law designed for white people who carry guns to avoid being prosecuted when they go too far (by normal understanding), killing unarmed people who may or may not be threatening them with a beating or worse. It has been passed in some twenty-five states as of this writing. Homicide rates have gone up 7-9% in the states that have passed such laws, proving that the killing is good in them. That translates to something like 500-700 more dead bodies. There is no proof at all that crime is reduced.

So where is the silver lining?

There is none really, not in terms of the facts, but I would argue that there is still good news out there to proclaim.

Were you outraged? Depressed? Sad? Were you surprised? If you were, any or all of these, AND if you hadn’t thought much about such things before, or considered them this bad, well, change has come your way.

If you believe that it is simply different to be young and black in America than it is to be white and young. If you believe that guns may not kill people but people with guns kill more people. If you believe that a stand your ground law is wrong on many levels since it rewards those who create their own terror from which to shoot from. If you were surprised that this was not at least manslaughter in the eyes of the law. If you were offended that Fox Noise continued throughout the trial to gin up the fear among whites that there would be rioting in the streets if Zimmerman were acquitted. If you were any of the above—

Join the ranks of those of us who have always known and believed these things. Join us in the tens of hundreds if that’s all “you” constitute. Perhaps “you” are tens of thousands. But you will remember and you will join an organization or be sure to vote next time. You have tipped over into a “group” whose success you now champion, something greater than self, something that is good for all.

And when you do, you add imperceptibly to the number needed to reach that magic number called the “tipping point” when we as a human family start seeing all of us as our group, our tribe.

If across the land the GOP remains engaged in the act of denying women the right to choose how to care for their own bodies and how to tend to them medically, and some tens of hundreds of women become enraged, and some tens of dozens join groups and vote accordingly, then they and you will add to that magic number called the “tipping point” when we as a human family start seeing all of us as our group, our tribe.

That is the civilization toward which I cast my vision. That is the future as I see it. It will come slower or faster than I hope, project, or believe, but it is inevitable I contend. We may lose ninety percent of the battles, but even in the losses we convert some, who become so disgusted with power misused and people abused that they join the HUMAN RACE.

The best remark I heard yesterday was “I dream of a time when a George Zimmerman rolls down his window and yelled, ‘hey kid, need a ride?’ to a young Trayvon Martin.” One day it will be a reality.

Related articles

• Race, Justice, and the Political Economy of Vigilantism (concurringopinions.com)
• The Real Winners Of the Zimmerman Trial Were the NRA and ALEC (politicususa.com)
• Richard (RJ) Eskow: I’m Sorry, Trayvon, But We’ll Walk On (huffingtonpost.com)
• It IS About Race: Study Finds Significant Racial Bias In ‘Stand Your Ground’ Laws (addictinginfo.org)

Just One of Those Crazy Accidents

Tags

2nd Amendment, children, gun culture, guns, NRA

So said the local county coroner, Gary White, declaring the shooting of a two-year-old by her five-year-old brother, just one of those things.

Crazy things happen when guns and kids are mixed. The parents are just really feeling stupid for leaving the boy’s “first rifle” propped in the corner and left loaded.

Just an accident. Move on.

Well, HELL NO!

First let me clear the air. Let there be no mistake about what’s about to come your way. I am utterly opposed to guns personally. I have lived with guns all my life. My father was an avid hunter. All my male relatives were as well. I had plenty of occasion to handle guns during my professional career. I know my calibers and I know firearms identification. I’m not ignorant of the territory.

I am also not a mother. This seems an important fact to some. A right-wing, “I love Jesus, the bible, and my guns” adherent told me that I was probably incapable of compassion for unborn babies because I was not a mother like her. So be forewarned, I am going to speak about that which I have no knowledge–children and guns and parents. (Okay, stop laughing–that would eliminate all men from being compassionate I know. But who in the hell ever accused a right-wing TeaPotter of being either rational or logical?)

You may have heard about the story of the five-year-old. For his fourth birthday, his stellarly-bright parents thought it a good idea to buy their boy his first gun. The gun in question is called a Crickett, manufactured by Keystone Sporting Arms. They have since cleaned up their website, because, well you know. Their commercials to kids look pretty damn sick about now. Luckily, it was captured before their wiped the site clean.

Just a couple of weeks ago, a deputy sheriff was showing off his arsenal to guests when his child grabbed a gun off the bed, fired it, and killed the female guest. This is of course nothing new. Although statistics often include more than just accidents, something like a couple of hundred children under the age of 12 die every year from firearms “accidents”. This is to say nothing of the suicides (the method of choice, and by far the most successful) accomplished by our youth by guns.

We can talk about gun violence all day. We can talk about all these tragedies. We can talk about background checks, and assault type weapons and high-capacity clips. Yet who would have thought that it would be legal to market and sell, and buy a gun for a four-year-old? Who in their thinking mind can contemplate that such a thing would be legal?

Apparently the manufacturers don’t specify any age when such weapons are “appropriate”. Goodness, that’s shocking isn’t it. Little triggers for little hands. Ahh, can you just swoon with the sweetness of this new market? Increasingly, as the gun makers have found the male market literally saturated, they have turned to women and children as new targets.

And this marketing is very real, as you can see.

Generally speaking, it is left up to the states to determine the rules under which guns can be legally in the hands of youth. Almost all require that one be 18 to buy a gun on their own, but many states allow people to buy guns for children as gifts, and there seem to be no restrictions in some states at least as it relates to shotguns and rifles.

The penalties imposed upon adults for negligence also vary considerably.

A whole culture has grown, and continues to grow around the “family that shoots together”. This kind of behavior is touted as bonding, and ultimately of course hints at the need of children to be able to defend themselves. Yes, we all want kids to turn to guns as their first line of defense don’t we?

Of course, such things are kept subtle. Mostly the ads suggest that the family fun of gunning is all about “sportsmanship” and family togetherness.

Don’t delay, get your child in on his new membership in the NRA the ads tell you.

The real intent–to sell guns and make profits is hidden behind lofty goals of “gun safety” and the joys of target shooting, to say nothing of spending quality time with dad in the woods in pursuit of making a bloody mess of Bambi.

Studies show that kids who are exposed to guns at an early age, have, as you might expect, good thoughts about gun ownership in general, and worse yet, they are more apt to encourage their friends to join in the fun.

WHY IS THIS LEGAL?

I can only ask the question because the answer seems so obvious. It should not be. At least to the vast majority of rational beings.

Guns are lethal. Cigarettes are harmful to one’s health. We don’t let parents buy them for their kids so start them on the joys of puffing. Alcohol is dangerous to one’s health. We don’t allow parents to invite all the little one’s at Sally’s birthday party to throw a few back between games of pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, and ice cream and cake do we? We don’t allow children to drive automobiles on public streets. We don’t allow them operate all kinds of dangerous machinery, work before a suitable age, work at many dangerous jobs. The list is endless.

But somehow we let them use lethal firearms because mom and dad like a well-armed family.

This magazine is for kids.

I’m glad to know that “glocks are for girls” aren’t you?

These kids after reading this bilge will not be begging for Barbies. They will be begging for more fire power!

What kind of insanity is this?

Look, as I said, I’m no parent. But I was once a child.

I knew a lot of other children when I was one.

I know a heck of a lot of adults today.

I know that most people are not competent to tie their shoes without supervision let alone raise kids.

Most of us manage to grow up not being serial killers because I guess the drive to be average is so darn strong that we avoid those pitfalls.

But most of us are from dysfunctional homes to one degree or another. Some of us came from wretched conditions, some of us were physically assaulted, some of us just emotionally assaulted.

Most parents are lousy. But we make allowances because nobody requires potential parents to take classes. We cut our parents slack because they “did they best they could” given their own upbringing. We are generous that way.

But there is a time and place to draw a line. And I draw it when parents are ALLOWED to buy guns for children for “fun”. I draw the line there. I don’t just draw a line. I erect a damn wall. And if you cross it, I am inclined to grab your kid and run while you sit in some damn cell and think about it for twenty years.

I of course, would allow no gun maker to make children’s weapons nor market them, nor sell them to anyone. They are NOT APPROPRIATE–EVER!

Is this country stark raving mad?

Is it just me?

Cuz if it is just me, then boy, I am too damn dumb to breath.

Well?

Does this image make you feel all warm and happy?

Does it?

Or this one?

 

Related articles

• Anyone for Cricketts? The rifles made especially for children (independent.co.uk)
• Guns made for kids: How young is too young to shoot? (newsheadiesblog.wordpress.com)
• Cricket My First Rifle……. (theobamacrat.com)

Is It Time NOW?

Tags

editorial, gun laws, guns, NRA, Politics

My first reaction was not shock. My first reaction was, “not again”. I sighed and turned up the volume as I spent the morning cooking, listening to the reports.

Isn’t that something? I was not shocked.

How can we be shocked? This is now something that happens with regularity in this country. It’s nothing new. Another news cycle of interviews with all the usuals–the families, the almost victims, the psychologists, the police, the politicians. The awful intrusions into the private horror and despair of grieving families, the endless speculations about the “shooter.” It’s all too predictable, all to common for us now.

And the usual things are said by the usual people. “It’s time to talk about gun control.” “They are using this tragedy to push their agenda of taking our guns away from us.” “Now’s not the time to talk gun control, it’s a time to grieve.” “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” “A man in china cut 22 people with a knife. Shall we ban knives too?” This dialogue is the same, just the location changes.

And what am I to say? More of the same?

The Right is already at it. “Obama will just use this as an excuse to take away our guns. We knew he would. There will never be another election.” We are reminded that if we mention it, we are “using the tragedy.” Did we use the tragedy of Katrina when we talked about new levees for New Orleans? Did we use the tragedy when we talked about how to improve our national security after 9/11? How are we using this tragedy by discussing the insidious love affair we have in this country for violence and weaponry? How are we using this tragedy to figure out ways to stop this slaughter of the innocents?

But guns don’t kill people they tell me.

You know what? YES THEY DO. They kill people more efficiently than any other means short of bombs. Just because they need a human operator takes nothing away from their lethal potentiality.

Knives kill people. You want to ban knives?

No I don’t want to ban knives. Knives can be lethal but are a step down from guns. More people survive knife attacks than they do gun attacks. Knives take longer, you can’t mow people down with a knife.

The NRA remains steadfast that ANY legislation will take us down that “slippery slope” which ends in the total banning of guns.

WHO SAYS?

Is it the same fool that tells me that allowing gay marriage will inevitably lead down the slippery slope to animal-human marriage?

Or the one who tells me that use of marijuana will lead me down the slope to a full-blown shooting-up heroin addiction?

Or the one that tells me that masturbation will cause me to go blind?

You know what?

I’m sick of the NRA. Who are these crazy people? Why they are in the business of selling guns. They don’t want to sell less. They don’t have hearts and souls like yours and mine. They don’t care that what they produce kills. When President Obama was re-elected, gun sales went up 45%. Forty-five PERCENT. Because the NRA fools told the jackasses that love them, that Obama is gonna take away their right to buy and possess guns, and of course he’s a commie/pinko/socialist/NEW WORLD ORDER guy who is gonna destroy America so you better be prepared for the REVOLUTION.

And guess what? Gun ownership is actually down in the US. You can’t believe that can you? Neither could I at first. There are over 300 MILLION guns in America. But ownership is down. The percentage of people who own guns is DOWN. So that means that more guns are being concentrated in fewer hands. Mr. Patriot out there is building an arsenal. How’s that make you feel? Nervous? I sure am.

Explain to me why on God’s green earth or any other planet for that matter, why anyone other than the military NEEDS assault rifles, high-powered handguns, any handgun, multi-clip ammo, or any of probably a hundred other things I don’t even know about but whose only point is to kill something from as far away as possible, as surely as possible, and frankly as explosively as possible?

Tell me why such things are necessarily required in your closet, in my neighborhood?

You like to shoot them?

Fine. Let’s have licensed ranges all over the freakin’ country and you can go out there, pick the weapon of your choice and shoot at plastic deer until the cows come home. But you go home without your little friend. Get that?

You want to hunt? Fine. You can have a shotgun or a regular rifle.

Do you know it’s illegal in some states to hunt ducks with a gun that can hold more than THREE cartridges? Otherwise it’s not sporting. It’s just blasting away at a space and figuring you’ll probably hit some. Yet you can own an assault rifle with a 100 ammo clip.

This is not the wild west. No matter how romantic you think it was, it wasn’t. It was ugly and mean and people died horribly. There is nothing noble about Rambo. All your “let’s pretend we are Navy Seals and kill bad guys” video games are designed to make you comfortable with guns and the culture of violence. I promise you, the reality is nothing so fun or clean. It’s dirty, it smells bad, it looks worse, and rational people do not find such things either “fun” or exciting.

We need to stop blaming the shooters in these tragedies, for they are simply sick souls. Can you figure out why someone who feels that the world has screwed him thinks the way to go out is to kill innocents who had nothing to do with his “wrong”? No? Neither can I, which leaves the only answer–people do this because they aren’t right in the head. We need to identify them early and help them before they are so deranged that killing people in a blaze of suicidal glory sounds appropriate to them.

We need to end this.

I’ve had enough.

I’m don’t want to spend the remainder of my life wondering what’s in the mall besides the stores and the merchandise.

I don’t want to live that way or think that way.

It’s time to demand rational gun laws from our ELECTED officials, and damn them if they don’t pass it.

Enough is enough.

 

Related articles

• Why the NRA Is Still Winning the War on Guns (theatlanticwire.com)
• NRA Should Have Noses Rubbed In Mess On Floor Of Newtown Elementary School (dekerivers.wordpress.com)
• What Better Place Than Here? What Better Time Than Now? (spiffysean.com)
• Enough Unnecessary Tragedy, Time to Disarm America and the NRA (planetpov.com)
• Gun Control – When will America come to Its Senses? (afnclarke.wordpress.com)
• Is the Newtown Massacre the Mass Shooting That Starts Us Talking About Gun Control Again? (blogs.villagevoice.com)
• Of Course Today Is the Day to Talk About Gun Control (gizmodo.com)

 

Oh, the Sadness of It

Tags

boy scouts, child abuse, gay rights, global warming, guns, Humor, Islamaphobia, Joe Paterno, Michele Bachmann, Mitt Romney, NRA, satire, violence, voting

It’s useless to ask how many must die before the NRA stops this charade that any limit on guns is some monstrous threat to our freedom.

They will continue always to argue that to even discuss the issue is “taking advantage of the tragedy”. Of course it is not. As  E. J. Dionne pointed out, no such thing was said when FEMA was attacked after Katrina.

Our gun policy is insane. The Democrats are scared silly to even mention it. The NRA continues to scream that Obama must be defeated because they are sure that once elected to a second term, he will let loose the dogs of gun control and in cahoots with the UN, eviscerate the Second Amendment. It’s all insane.

There is no shortage of insane people in this country. Pursuant to the religious policies of the Mormon and Catholic churches (now that’s some strange bedfellowing), the higher-ups in the boy scouting world have voted to continue preventing gay men and women to serve as scout masters.

Way to continue false stereotypes you miserable excuses for Jesus followers. (If you detected some personal opinion here, be assured it was not intended.) 😛

And let’s not forget our girl, Michele “wild eyes” Bachmann. Much like the much forgotten Sarah, Michele misses the limelight and doesn’t really care who she harms in her quest to get some press.

Her attacks on Huma Abedin are outrageous, causing members of her own idiotic party to condemn her. With her on this McCarthyite-type attack is the ever crazy Louis Gohmert, that fine upstanding horse’s ass from Texas. He lost the fight with Rick Perry over the one brain cell they were supposed to share. Nothing but cobwebs in his upstairs. Shame on ’em both.

And then there is Paterno, now dead and unable to face what he should have to face.

How can you work with young people virtually all of your life, yet turn your back and cover up a man who is molesting children?

How can you?

Rip down that statute, Penn State. He deserves nothing but our condemnation.

Meanwhile drought continues over vast areas of the US. What looked to be a bumper crop in the Midwest is being plowed under as a total loss or near it. The West is on fire. The East is sweltering.

But the righty-tightys continue to point out that their version of the bible suggests (if you choose to read it that way) that the earth will never be destroyed, and that’s enough for them. The Koch brothers and their ilk pat them on their stupid heads, and order more martinis.

And the GOP, though insane, are not stupid. They have devised a way to suppress the Democratic vote.

It’s the American way doncha know. I mean, better than 10,000 legitimate voters be turned away rather than one illegitimate one in the entire nation get through to cast a ballot.

No doubt that is what the Founding Fathers intended.

Gosh we got pretty darn far before a Romney insanity showed up. Seems Willard is spending all his time now, reminding us that “greed is good”.

Word is that what Willard is trying so hard to keep under wraps is that he basically paid no taxes before he dressed them all up for public display. He points out that Lindsay Graham says that not paying taxes IS the American way. But of course, Mitt expects me to pay mine. Lots more in fact, so that we can keep those taxes really low on the job creators. Does that include his horse who garnered a $77,000 deduction a few years ago? He was creating manure for sure. And I guess somebody got a job cleaning that up. Must be how it works.

Can’t we all just learn to get along?

 

What’s Up? 07/07/10

Tags

2nd Amendment, aliens, astronomy, big bang, Glenn Beck, GOP, guns, Michael Steele, Sharron Angle, squirrels, teabaggers

Well, I think I’ve got this little guy’s attention! Can you say saucer eyes? I’m trying to figure out what he is eating, and it looks suspiciously like some kind of buggy thingie. Also check out the fingers! Makes you just wanna cuddle doesn’t it?

I think we made like 28 hours without rain. It was raining when I woke up, so I’m not quite sure when it started again. They are starting to put out some warnings for flooding, but not in this county.

I am aware that there can be cyclical changes in weather that go on for years, even decades. But I think there is every reason to associate this new “rainy season” with global warming. They say that England is having the driest summer on record for I don’t know how long.

Everybody has something to grouse about. The east is sweltering this year. I’m surprised they have been able to hold the line with electricity so far. I’ll do my best to bring forth some links that are amusing. Goodness knows I need some, and probably so do you.

I just read where guv Jindal of LA, just signed into law a bill that allows gun toters to bring their shootin’ irons to church–in the name of security that is. Sadly, such nonsense is not just laughable, but indeed frightening. Sarah Posner has a great article on how the right sees its need to arm itself against the danger of democracy in action. This is indeed scary stuff.

The teabaggers continue to struggle. You see, most of them aren’t educated much at all, and now find themselves, as candidates for serious offices, and unable of course to face media with anything close to a cogent message. Case in point, Sharron Angle who is trying to unseat Harry Reid. Now that she is the nominee, she decided to scrap her agenda and start over, and is mad at Harry for reprinting her OWN website, since as I said, she’s changed all her positions. Rethuglians continue to be amazed that what they say is RECORDED.

No doubt you have heard that there is now such a thing as Beck U. Our dear little huckster Glenn will for a small fee of $75 a year, let you enter the environs of Beck U. where you can take courses by faux “profs” and learn the learn history of America and other such reconstructionist ideals. Learn about yer rights there my friend, so you’ll be ready to take on the guv’ment which is takin’ away yer rights.  Glenn continues to make money off the gullible and stupid.

I happened to see Pat Robertson supporting Michael Steele and in the same sentence claiming that McCain and Graham have been rejected as party leaders of the GOP. He’s with Steele, Afghanistan is Obama’s war of choice.  It became that when he added more troops there. Interesting way of looking at it. I love watching the GOP beat up on each other. Oh yes I do.

I’m not an anti-squirrel person. Never have been. I don’t mind if they snitch a bit of food from the bird feeder now and then. In fact, I applaud their bravery. Few venture near our house with two snarly dogs who are quick enough to catch them. I think them cute. And I always do my best to give them the right of way when crossing highways. They are intriguing in ways I had not realized. How so? Read the NYTimes article and find out.

Some years ago we participated in the SETI program. Our computer crunched numbers when we were not using it, part of the massive data influx the program received. Anomalies were searched for. Stephen Hawking said we shouldn’t look for aliens, they are likely to be mean. That was never the working theory of the originators of the SETI program, Frank Drake from I think Cornell originally. Anyway, if the subject intrigues you (word for the day!), then read on.

There is a probe out there, mapping the very edges of the universe, thus displaying how our universe looked in the seconds following the Big Bang. Oddly there is a couple of guys who have proposed a new theory wherein our universe is the result of a wave hitting another wave ( visualize two pieces of paper waving in the wind and occasionally they touch at different parts, creating universes). This probe I think will likely answer whether the BB is the true cause or the oops we touched! is the winner. Either way, fascinating.

And with that: