Month: February 2018

 
From North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz:

In the wake of the shameful growing legacy of mass shootings in America, one of the saddest realizations, is that the loudest, most vehement voices championing the cause of weapons of brutality—have come from professed Evangelical Christians.

The cognitive dissonance of supposed followers of Jesus choosing the side of violence and opposing the movement of mercy is staggering, exceeded only by the contention that Jesus says they can pack heat.

It’s nonsense and heresy and it’s a full bastardization of his life and ministry.

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From Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger:

The problem Trump has is that the American public doesn’t want his military parade (see chart below). Majorities of all voters, both genders, all ages, and all races/ethnicities all are opposed to the parade. They don’t want to copy tyrants like Kim Jong-Un, and think such a parade doesn’t display strength (but weakness). Everyone knows the U.S. has the strongest military in the world, and showing it off in a parade doesn’t enhance that view.

Trump doesn’t care what Americans want though. He has ordered his military to have one anyway. But to disguise his narcissistic desire, he has set the date for the parade as November 11th — Veterans Day. He will try to pass of his vulgar display of narcissistic power as a tribute to veterans.

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From Helen Philpot with Margaret and Helen:

Someone tweeted the question: Does Ann Coulter have to be crated on Delta flights or could you make the case that she is a comfort pet? I’m going to say yes to the former, but no to the latter.

It got me wondering, however, about what Ann has been up to these days. Apparently she is using her 3rd grade writing skills to make the case that a mass deportation of immigrants would result in mass shootings being reduced by half. She likes the word mass. Me too. If we had a mass deportation of old, white racists, I bet we would see a mass decrease in Ann Coulter readers and probably a mass NRA membership reduction of about half. I’m sure the other half are responsible hunters who still think the NRA is about them. Unless of course they’re hunting deer with an AR-15. Then they are just assholes.

The NRA membership is less than 2% of the population and yet the NRA owns 100% of Republican politicians. They do not represent gun owners. They lobby to protect the profits of gun manufacturers. For heaven’s sake, more people have read our blog and Margaret and I are nobodies.

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From The Moderate Voice:

Donald Trump said the National Rifle Association is full of good people, which puts them in exclusive company because that’s the same thing he said about Nazis. Congrats, NRA.

If you watched just a few seconds of the speeches by NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre and spokesgoon Dana Loesch, you’ll see why they might belong in the same company.

Wayne LaPierre said gun control advocates hate freedom. Loesch said the “legacy media” loves mass shootings and “crying white mothers” are ratings gold. Donald Trump said we should have a rating system for violent video games and movies, which we’ve had since 1968. Maybe the president should focus on issues occurring during this century.

Trump said the NRA is willing to work with gun advocates for gun safety. I watched some of the CPAC speeches and I didn’t detect any willingness on their part to work on actual gun safety.

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Pete Souza:

Sometimes it’s a good idea to write words down. Just so you don’t forget.

Wondering why a few conservative friends fail to be impressed.

• Neil Bamforth at MadMikesAmerica suggests that America repeal the Second Amendment then has second thoughts.
   
• In The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser, fundamentalist coach and self-styled preacher reacts to the Parkland school shooting. He says the boys at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School lacked masculinity.
   
• North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz has heard the usual post-horror words about waiting for a while lest we politicize tragedy. He reacts.
   
• At The Moderate Voice, Dr. Arif Ahmad reflects on a 2015 address by Pope Francis to the US Congress about the root cause of armed violence. I am reminded of Paul’s first letter to Timothy about evil.
   
• PZ Myers, who teaches, has a few concerns about Trump proposals to arm him during classes. Answer his questions, Mr. President, and he should be fine.
   
• Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger looks at the polling and brings us 10 charts on 10 different ways the US public views Donald Trump.
   
• Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged, a literary luminary, takes a look at my President’s angry weekend and suggests the cover-up of the Russia-Trump campaign partnership, and accidental admission, might have been written by Edgar Allan Poe.
   
• Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit has a new theory about why President Trump so vehemently opposes “chain migration”.
   
• @bjork55 at Bjork Report sees that our President has imposed new sanctions on North Korea, but notes that there is one omission.
   
• driftglass really has something against David Brooks, the New York Times, and bothsiderism.
   
• M. Bouffant at Web of Evil is amused to discover that a misspelling in proposed South Carolina legislation would require the wearing of mom jeans.
   
• Every month or so Infidel753 posts a series of one line observations. They are very, very good. Do take a look at February.
   
• This week’s note in Trumpian ‘Alternative Facts’ comes from your President and mine as Donald Trump tweets that he has been much tougher on Russia than Obama.
   

 
Anytime I want to read something insightful, I can check Stinque.com to see if nojo has anything to contribute to the cause.

Someone recently posted on Facebook a goofy sort of defense of the NRA.

Millions of NRA members and not one has shot up a school.

That’s a fact!

This was a bit much for nojo, who shot back:

Their money, along with that of weapons manufacturers, is funneled into politicians who work tirelessly to do nothing — or worse — to solve a problem that has killed 1.5 million Americans since 1968.

They are all accessories to murder.

We know of no other way to explain it.

Comrade Misfit was having none of it. I’ve been reading our favorite earthbound misfit for years. She’s a fun read, generally creative, and knows everything, everything, about planes, trains, warfare, and firearms. She’s a gun enthusiast, an expert on the subject.

Comrade Misfit:

I’m an NRA member. If you want to brand me as “an accessory to murder” or “a member of a terrorist organization”, then there is nothing to discuss. There are millions, if not over ten million, rifles out there that are patterned on Eugene Stoner’s design. Are you going to pay for every one of them?

Beyond that, be careful of using the “my right to life trumps your right to own a gun” argument. That’s exactly the argument used to ban abortion.

I dunno. It’s not a bad analogy. Not perfect, but no analogy is, really. I think a somewhat closer analogy might be a debate over whether we should allow a privately owned missile launcher, ready to fire, to be parked on the roadside next to an airport.

Ryan appreciates Comrade Misfit’s point but regards her argument as weak.

Ryan:

While I don’t agree that members of the NRA are terrorists or accessories to murder, the organization absolutely deserves condemnation for its particular brand of propaganda (especially constant fearmongering), tactics (including blocking gun research), ridiculous arguments, opposition to reasonable and popular gun control measures, and association with and influence over the GOP and conspiracy theorists. One shouldn’t have to be pro-gun control to recognize this.

“That’s exactly the argument used to ban abortion.”

The arguments are different in at least one meaningful way: we have not established that the fetus does have a right to life. Even if we did, which right trumps the other is a values question that by no means dictates our position on the right to life vs. the right to own a gun.

Nevertheless, it is indeed a poor argument. Having a right to life does not mean that the government is obligated to protect it absolutely in every way, including from gun-owning fellow citizens with no intention of harming anyone. That would have all sorts of undesirable implications and consequences. For the same reason, of course, gun owners should neither regard their second amendment freedom as limitless nor fight for it to be. There is indeed a point at which reason and safety should trump freedom. We are simply fighting over what that point is.

Dave Dubya of Freedom Rants is not known for mincing words.

Dave Dubya:

“my right to life trumps your right to own a gun”

There’s no need to conflate abortion into this issue. And it’s more like, “My right to own a gun trumps your right to life and liberty” that has become the NRA creed. Freedom, life, and liberty end at the point of a rifle.

I’m from the Great North Woods and hunted from a young age. I get it.

I never needed an AR15 to hunt, nor for self defense. Sport or no sport, they were designed to kill human beings. Now I’m attacked for agreeing with Reagan that we don’t need 30 round mags in public. I still have a few guns, but I’ll be damned if I give a dime to the NRA. In the past they were very much about education and safety, but now they are primarily a political organization.

The indisputable bottom lines are these:

The more weapons in circulation, the more humans will die from them. As with the cholera epidemic, shut down the pump and more will live.

Despite the hollow platitudes about “freedom”, the NRA now exists solely to funnel wealth to weapons merchants and to empower the Republican Party. The NRA is virtually an arm of the Republican Party.

That means NRA money goes straight to the Party of Trump. There’s blood money flowing. It’s as if human sacrifice is accepted in the name of the Militia Amendment. For this we have thousands killed and millions living in fear, not freedom.

Stephanie Ruhle breaks down how much money the NRA has given to Republicans who talk about their “thoughts and prayers” — The thoughts and prayers are with the victims. The dollars and cents are another story.”

https://www.facebook.com/Mediamatters/videos/10155322144601167/

The NRA spent $21 Million on supporting Trump and attacking Hillary.

Thanks for the “freedom”, boys. Putin thanks you too, as he laughs his ass off.

My own view is that what started as a firearms safety organization has devolved. It is now mostly funded and run by gun manufacturers, who strike me as a cold-blooded group.

I suspect most NRA members would support common sense limits, if they were not drowned out by industry mouthpieces. I have known a few members, one at worship, a couple at work, one from long ago at another job. We haven’t had much cause to talk about the issue, but they all wear shoes and talk without drooling.

Aside from those who have surrendered to movement extremists, we all are for reasoned debate. I don’t hear or read much argument for confiscation of all guns or regulation for its own sake.

But it’s hard to argue for murder or for death by careless accident. And nobody likes to be bullied.

Have a safe weekend. Let’s be real careful out there.

 
From The Onion:

THE HEAVENS—As he entered the Pearly Gates and walked the gold-paved streets of God’s Eternal Kingdom, the late Rev. Billy Graham was reportedly so overwhelmed Wednesday by the great majesty before him that he did not at first notice he had taken a turn leading him down the main thoroughfare of heaven’s largest gay enclave. “Oh no, oh—Where am I, exactly?”

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From tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors:

We note with chagrin that Rep. Cathy McMorris Rogers fundraising event that would feature auctioning off an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle—just like the type used to hunt free-range high school students in Florida—is now changing course:

“After POLITICO contacted the committee on Tuesday afternoon, the Stevens County Republican Party removed mentions of the AR-15 and a plan to offer a Ruger 10-22 .22-caliber rifle as a door prize from the event’s website. The organization was still considering how to proceed with the auction, its chair said.

“Then, after the POLITICO report was published on Tuesday evening, the committee made a final decision to nix the AR-15.”

Tuesday? They didn’t think this was bad optics until YESTERDAY?

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