Tragedy in Orlando: Bars, Blame, and Bullshit

Trump says the Orlando shooter was born in Afghan, and revved up the media with a renewed dedication to keeping out the Muslim immigrants. Bullshit. This was a natural-born American man.


Some people are calling for confiscation of weapons of anyone under investigation by the FBI or on the No Fly list. Bullshit. I'm liberal as hell, but that would be an insane infringement on rights, not to mention easily and often abused. Besides, after several interviews, the FBI cleared Omar Mateen and he was removed from the watch and no fly lists.


[That said, holy shitballs did you see the piece Omar was packing?


Sig Sauer MCX

SIG SAUER developed the MCX rifle for America’s special forces. Their goal: a firearm that’s as quiet as an MP5, as deadly as an AK-47, and more modular than anything ever designed.

So, uh, maybe that weapon shouldn't be commercially available.]


Many, many conservatives are dredging the river again for the "Obama won't say Islamic Terrorism!" And that's bullshit. Obama is passive-aggressive trolling here. ISIS is all "Hey, we're The Islamic State!" and Obama grins and says "nope." He's not afraid to call it what it is, or catering to the PC crowd, he's refusing to give any legitimacy to ISIS by not recognizing what they are doing as Muslim in nature. Somehow, the conservative internet brigade that regularly incorporates mild invective with "The Democrat Party" and "Moslem" doesn't get that.

And speaking of insane bullshit and anti-anything-Obama-says, a Missouri county has refused to fly their flags at half mast. Grumble grumble Obama sucks. Hey, let's pull out the Flag Code and be dicks about a tragedy because Obama and gays.


This was a horrible tragedy, but the emerging story appears to be that American-born Omar Mateen was a very conflicted individual. He was Muslim with a hard homosexual lean. And he hated it, hated it in himself, and in that conflict found vindication for his hate in some radical online materials. He gave a shout-out to ISIS through 911, as a cry for help or attention or both. Of course, ISIS saw the carnage and was like "Ooh, yeah, that's all us, man! We totally had a part in that!"

This is not about immigrants because Omar was born here. This is not about Islam because religion was a bystander to rage. This isn't about terrorism because it was not an act planned to create fear for an agenda. And this isn't about guns or laws because there is literally no rational policy or legislation that could have been in place that would have stopped this from happening.

If anything, this is about the stigma and taboo our society still places on homosexuality. Despite a victory for same sex marriage, our society as a whole is still sopping with hate and fear and ignorance when it comes to the LGBT community. Perhaps if Omar felt comfortable in the world around him, felt at home with what was inside, a calm would have taken root instead of his ultimate decision. And that's the fault of his religion - most religions - and lingering ignorance and, in some way, every single one of us.

Be peaceful.

Day of Resistance is Tomorrow *facepalm*

So because Obama is singlehandedly dismantling the 2nd Amendment and looking forward to his time using his Kenya Powers to fly around America and take all the guns from all the people, tomorrow is the DAY OF RESISTANCE! From their website:

On January 16, 2013, President Barack Obama issued 23 executive actions against your 2nd amendment Constitutional right to bear arms. He did this without the consent of Congress which in itself, violates the foundation of the Constitution and the co-equal branches of government.

In response to these unconstitutional actions by the President, on .223, February 23, 2013 the American people will stand together in defiance to protect the right that protects ALL of our rights, the 2nd Amendment! They will organize locally so that they may band together neighbor to neighbor and reassert their community's right to determine their own destiny! Join today by selecting an option below.

I'm not going to address the stupid behind the fear behind the executive orders (none of which have been taken, just suggested) and their unconstitutionality (they're put forth in a way that the constitution does not forbid and every president uses them).

*sigh*

So take a look at the official rally list and see if you need to stay indoors tomorrow. The official Gun Appreciation Day ended in seven or so hospital visits from accidentally discharged firearms. I'm guessing this will be much, much worse.

In Brief: The 2nd Amendment

Why do most conservatives you hear raging against gun control only ever refer to the name of the amendment?

Because if they had to quote it directly, they would have to acknowledge two rather difficult words:

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

Inconvenient, that is.

And while I have your attention, Thom Hartmann's piece on the Second Amendment and how it was partially constructed to preserve slavery is a must-read for anyone remotely interested in the gun debate.

The Face of Conservatism: Dead Kids Are Funny

From this piece of foul bloggery:

One would have to have a heart of stone to fail to be amused by the death of this little punk:

A 65-year-old man who was knocked off his bicycle by three teenagers on a Pennsylvania trail shot two of them, killing one, police said according to reports. The Reading Eagle newspaper said the wounded teen, 16, was taken to hospital and the third, aged 15, was taken in for questioning and was later committed to a youth center.... According to police, the 65-year-old was riding his bicycle when the teens knocked him to the ground, the station said. Police said two teens then assaulted the man, who drew his gun and shot them.

What a pity that's not on YouTube. Can you imagine the expression on the face of the dying little prick? One moment, he thinks he's a happy-slapping bad ass impressing his friends with a little casual assault-and-battery and the very next moment, it's game over. For good. Way to go, tough guy.

Concealed carry is certainly one of the more effective means of teaching the little bastards to show the elderly at least a modicum of respect.

Unfortunately, it speaks for itself.

Guns, Guns, Guns!

Hey, if you've got a good blog and I don't TOTALLY disagree with you and you're not trying to spam, and have something relevant for me to share with my readers, I'm happy to do it. Yay!

So today we've got http://mikeb302000.blogspot.com/ and Mike B talks, for the most part, about gun control - and our need for more. That makes me happy. And he's been at it since '08! Nice.

So take a look at his place, see what you think, comment there, comment here.

Incidentally, the title of this post is the title of an audio parody I'm working on for a gun show commercial. Seriously, folks: gun shows - WTF?

NRA is Scam Spam BS Loopholing It

I like guns. When used by kitties and angry bears. No, seriously, when handled responsibly by sane individuals for purposes of defense, I have no issue with firearms. In fact, my personal, somewhat-irrational fear of the world coming apart at the seams has prompted me to look into purchasing a handgun, though I have as of yet not done so.

But the point of this post is that I was trying to catch a snooze on my lunch break today and a call came in from Virginia. Okay. So I picked it up and it was a call from the NRA. "This is 'Sally' from the National Rifle Association and we would like your opinion on a poll. The Obama administration - you would not believe what they are doing. They are trying to take away your guns. We have a statement by NRA VP that we'd like you to listen to and would like your comment."

I knew it wasn't a robocall because of how bad the reading was. Terrible. It was a Saturday Night Live skit gone horribly wrong. "...you would not believe..." was delivered in such a way that the woman herself had just been introduced to this script, it was written in crayon by a 3 year old and she was told to feign outrage but wasn't quite sure what the word outrage or the word feign meant - and her supervisor had his thumb in her butthole.

So at that point, not wanting to further my pain, I replied calmly and concisely: "Stop scaring people with made up bullshit and I might consider it." *click*


And the thing that pissed me off was not that they had my number from who-knows-what or that they interrupted my lunchtime nappy or that Obama has no intention of taking people's guns away from them but that they were totally gaming the system.

Here in the USA since 2004, if you put your number on the Do Not Call Registry, then you're solid - bitches can't call you and bug you to sell you something. But the U.S. Chamber and lawmakers inserted a couple of notable exceptions for exemptions:

• Any not-for-profit organizations
• Any political organization
• Companies conducting surveys

So I got double-punked on this call: I've got a not-for-profit organization "conducting a survey." They're using those two to spread biased, fear-mongering misinformation to strike political terror into the hearts of "patriots."

Now I didn't go through the whole survey and maybe I should've - I know you enjoy when I put my mind in the line of fire by listening to Rush and Glenn and Sean on a regular basis. But I can tell you the last question in that survey: Are you interested in how you can stop this threat to your liberty and the United States Constitution? And then you tell them they are allowed to contact you.

Bottom line: The NRA is using deception and lies and misinformation and loopholes to scare the shit out of ignorant Americans and boost their dues take. And isn't that the image they're trying to avoid?


So when I do decide it's better for me to have a gun and not need one than need a gun and not have one, I will make my purchase(s) happily and proudly. But I will not join the NRA. They can take their political misinformation and put it in Sally's bunghole with her super's thumb.