This blog will focus on political images I have found all around the Internet, though I will intersperse some commentary and quotes that I find interesting.
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Friday, December 21, 2012
Sigh!
You just can't fix stupid - and it seems as if the stupid is getting more prevalent by the week.
4 People Dead; 3 Troopers Injured In PA Shooting Spree During NRA Press Conference
Another dumb Facebook post
Imagine, if you will, a gun being dropped - or a student taking a gun from a purse - or a gun being stolen from a teacher's desk (things are stolen in schools every day) - or a gun left lying on a desk picked up by a curious 5-year-old (or worse yet, picked up by a high school student with a grudge) - or an innocent parent entering a school and forgetting to sign in while a trigger-happy teacher starts blasting away - or imagine the results, if a shooter did enter the school, of teachers hiding behind doors and conducting a shoot-out with a guy armed with an automatic weapon and wearing bullet-proof armor. A .22 caliber pistol is not going to be much of a defense. Even police officers who are trained and equipped to deal with shooters sometimes get injured or killed.
Do you think there are teachers who suffer from mental illness? Might one of them not go berserk? Or how about those who have proposed that we hire returning veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars to work as guards in schools? Do any of them suffer from PTSD and would they all be stable and reliable, sitting there in a school full of children?
Trust me - the answer to too many guns in the wrong hands is not more guns in the wrong hands. I am not advocating getting rid of all guns - I am advocating the elimination of assault rifles in ANYONE's hands, and much more strict background checks of anyone who wishes to buy a gun. We can't eliminate all mudrers, but perhaps we can slow them down.
It's about the guns, stupid.
STATEMENT OF MAYOR MICHAEL R. BLOOMBERG ON NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION PRESS CONFERENCE
“The NRA’s Washington leadership has long been out of step with its members, and never has that been so apparent as this morning. Their press conference was a shameful evasion of the crisis facing our country. Instead of offering solutions to a problem they have helped create, they offered a paranoid, dystopian vision of a more dangerous and violent America where everyone is armed and no place is safe. Leadership is about taking responsibility, especially in times of crisis. Today the NRA’s lobbyists blamed everyone but themselves for the crisis of gun violence. While they promote armed guards, they continue to oppose the most basic and common sense steps we can take to save lives – not only in schools, but in our movie theaters, malls, and streets. Enough. As a country, we must rise above special interest politics. Every day, 34 Americans are murdered with guns. That’s why 74 percent of NRA members support common sense restrictions like criminal background checks for anyone buying a gun. It is time for Americans who care about the Second Amendment and reasonable gun restrictions to join together towork with the President and Congress to stop the gun violence in this country. Demand a plan.”
The Interview
I posted earlier this morning about the crazy-ass Republican Congressman on Morning Joe. At last they've posted the interview.
THIS IS ICONIC AND A MUST VIEW!
THIS IS ICONIC AND A MUST VIEW!
Christianity
One of the reasons people like their religions is that it elevates them above everyone else - after all, what good is heaven if EVERYBODY goes there? You've got to hate someone - God created Hell for a reason.
The crazy Republicans
About 45 minutes ago, as I start this post, Morning Joe had some crazy-ass conservative Republican Congressman on the air who, after some prodding finally admitted that he would NEVER vote for a budget plan that included tax increases, even if there were large spending cuts included. He insisted that spending cuts were the only way to cut the nation's deficit. He further declared that he wouldn't vote for any bill restricting assault weapons in the U.S.
The entire panel on MJ was staring bug-eyed. Danny Deutch jumped right in the man's face about his lack of willingness to compromise. Joe Scarborough was incensed that this idiot would suggest that Joe was politicking the Connecticut shooting in order to ban hand guns.
Unfortunately, the video has not been posted - at least yet - I will check back later today. It is one of the most demonstrative exchanges I have seen on TV yet of why the U.S is in such deep shit - we have segments of our population that are absolute assholes, and they are electing their own to Congress.
However, there is a clip available of Eugene Robinson's (Washington Post) response.
The entire panel on MJ was staring bug-eyed. Danny Deutch jumped right in the man's face about his lack of willingness to compromise. Joe Scarborough was incensed that this idiot would suggest that Joe was politicking the Connecticut shooting in order to ban hand guns.
Unfortunately, the video has not been posted - at least yet - I will check back later today. It is one of the most demonstrative exchanges I have seen on TV yet of why the U.S is in such deep shit - we have segments of our population that are absolute assholes, and they are electing their own to Congress.
However, there is a clip available of Eugene Robinson's (Washington Post) response.
And where did that deficit come from?
Our national deficit is really the result of a few key factors. Republicans would have you believe that entitlements (I'll name them as they really aren't entitlements - we pay for them - Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid) are responsible for the deficit, but it really isn't so. I wonder why we can't have an intellectual discussion about issues such as these in the media at and at the Congressional level? Shit - it is really discouraging that conservatives are allowed to falsely frame the arguments the way they do.
Thursday, December 20, 2012
We need more guns?
The rightest of the right-wing gun imbeciles (we've passed the nut stage) are claiming that we need MORE guns, not fewer, to discourage the bad guys (or women).
From the Denver Post...
Because what we really needed here was for those girls to be armed so that we could have had a shoot out! How neat would that have been!
From the Denver Post...
A Denver mother who believed her daughter was being bullied at school drove into the school's parking lot and threatened four girls with a gun, according to an arrest document.
Monica Avila, 34, was charged Tuesday with four counts of felony menacing and one count of possession of a weapon on school grounds, also a felony. According to the probable cause statement accompanying her arrest paperwork, Avila drove into the parking lot at Lake Middle School on Thursday afternoon and confronted four girls, ages 13 and 14.
The statement says Avila began arguing with the girls about bullying. She then, while still sitting in her car, pulled out a black semi-automatic handgun and said, "Look what I have," the document states.
Because what we really needed here was for those girls to be armed so that we could have had a shoot out! How neat would that have been!
A few words on the mass murder in Conn
I picked up this quote from a blog, but lost the attribution. Thanks for the words, but apologies to the author.
In this country, you can legally buy assault weapons. What does that say about us?
Think about it. We have a national legislative body that fears the clout of the National Rifle Assn. more than it worries about the consequences of allowing people to buy weapons designed for war.
Fox News
Fox News brings a whole new level of crazy to entertain the crazies of the nation. Blatant lies, mis-edited quotes, and sexy legs all contribute to attracting those hoping for a simpler life where some mythical being is responsible for their irresponsibility.
Is God protecting us?
In the recent shooting in Connecticut, would the people not have been slain had we allowed prayer in our schools, as suggested by Huckabee and Robertson? I have not seen any evidence of this anywhere else, why should we have expected that here?
god+in+schools.jpg)
god+in+schools.jpg)
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Where you go when you die.
Father Guido Sarducci discusses what happens to people when they die (humor)
Don't trust the Republicans with the social safety net
FDR - so insightful and so sarcastic. Gotta love what he did for this country.
Do I understand Jesus correctly?
Isn't interesting how many people can read the Bible and think of Jesus as spreading the word of "every man for himself," and how many others can read the same Bible and think of Jesus as the teacher of the "love thy neighbor" philosophy? Question is - where lies the problem - The Bible or the followers?
Spreading God's love
If you think that a strong belief in God and Jesus leads people to a greater morality - to a greater motivation to do good works - think again. It is far more likely to spread ignorance, hate and even HIV.
The God we know
There is an image of a God in this universe who has absolute power over this earth and all of its denizens. To those who can "see" (believe in) him, he will often take part in our lives. According to the true believers (delusional), he could have protected the 20 dead children in Newton, Conn last week - if only they had been praying in school. Although many of them were from religious families, God chose not to intervene, for whatever reason. (Perhaps- just perhaps - because this God does not exist?)
Molly Ivens on gun control
She was an excellent spokeswoman for the liberals in this country until her passing just a few years ago.
Here's an idea...
Nah - it will never work. Republican creed - protect our guns - protect our fetuses - protect our manly rights - fuck the kids and the women.
Monday, December 17, 2012
Racist rants from football fans
The next time that your conservative friends tell you that their politics is not "race based," send them to this site with racist rants about their football game being preempted.
Educational profiteering
The wealthy are opposed to public schools for many reasons. They don't want their children associating with riff-raff, they want their own children in private schools, they don't want to pay taxes for public schools (especially if they are sending their kids to a private school and paying for that as well), and they want to be able to make a profit off of the public tax dollars that are going to public schools. They have had some problems convincing the public that public tax dollars should go to strictly private schools, so they have worked very hard to crate a middle-of-the-road school that is partly private, partly public, called the "charter" school. These schools often get to select some children over others and they are usually privately run, so some capitalist is making a profit at the expense of the educational program.
The wealthy (and conservatives who buy the whole bullshit line of reasoning) like to promote these charter schools as superior in some fashion to the public schools - not as good as the private schools mind you, but better than the average. There's just one or two problems.
First of all, the public schools do not have to make a profit - every penny they get goes into educating the children. Charter school operators need to make a profit - and given the exact same dollar-per-student aid, 10% is taken off the top for the owners of the charter.
Secondly, there's not a lot of evidence that, on average, the charters do as good a job of educating the children as the public schools. (Go figure - 10% less money to run the program.) And so, they try to break all of the rules for reporting. Oh, there's lots of evidence of this - click the link below to read a fairly comprehensive report on this very topic.
The wealthy (and conservatives who buy the whole bullshit line of reasoning) like to promote these charter schools as superior in some fashion to the public schools - not as good as the private schools mind you, but better than the average. There's just one or two problems.
First of all, the public schools do not have to make a profit - every penny they get goes into educating the children. Charter school operators need to make a profit - and given the exact same dollar-per-student aid, 10% is taken off the top for the owners of the charter.
Secondly, there's not a lot of evidence that, on average, the charters do as good a job of educating the children as the public schools. (Go figure - 10% less money to run the program.) And so, they try to break all of the rules for reporting. Oh, there's lots of evidence of this - click the link below to read a fairly comprehensive report on this very topic.
Charter schools don't perform as advertised
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Gene Roddenberry
It's really very simple, if you think about it - God created us imperfectly then blamed us for being imperfect. Brilliant!
Circumcision - why we mutilate.
Apparently our Christian God didn't do a very good job when he created men. Or at least a lot of Bible-thumpers think we need to trim things up a little bit.
Tea Party
For your friends who belong to the Tea Party - or who claim to be sympathetic to the teabaggers. Help them understand what the TP really represents.
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A conservative's post
A conservatives' post on Facebook - from one of those "acquaintances" I've met only online.
And so today, 2 days after the shooting in Connecticut, the post above was made on Facebook. Over 31 comments followed, all of them focused on the issue of protecting gun rights. A few questioned the logic, addressing an attack in China in which 22 children were stabbed (none died). And of course, the gun rights advocates questioned, "What will we do next, ban knives?"
I focus here so often on the inability of conservatives to think beyond step one or step two of any problem, and never has it been more evident in the discussion now going on over guns. But do you notice how dismissive this author is of the lives lost? Send "whatever" is how she dismisses the emotion that many of us feel over the loss of those innocent lives. Cold, cruel and convinced that anything that does not happen to her did not happen. She says we should focus on "mental status," but five will get you ten that she's not willing to see her taxes go up to cover the cost of treatment for folks like this.
Many of the "gun rights" nuts think that the way to solve the problem is to arm everyone. Whereas I envision a world where it is safe for me to go to work, to school, to the shopping mall, or to just be in my home safe from an attack from someone with an assault weapon, they envision a world in which we all walk around with side arms and assault weapons, ready for a shoot-out at any moment we feel uneasy with those around us.
In Michigan this week, the conservatives passed a law allowing guns in schools. Just imagine, they claim, how safe the children will be if everyone in school is armed. (Sarcasm mode on) Because we all know that no one in any school carrying a weapon could be the crazy one that turns the gun on staff or children. And just think - if we had only armed those deceased 6 and 7 year-old children in Connecticut, they could have drawn their guns from their little desks and started blasting away at the bad guy! Oh, what great fun that would have been! (Sarcasm mode off.)
I am a gun owner - have hunted for years and years - but I am adamantly opposed to the private ownership of assault weapons and handguns with clips holding more than 5 or 6 bullets at a time. They are not necessary. I know what the constitution says about the right to own guns. The constitution is not infallible - we've amended it 27 times - it can be amended again. The time has come to make us more secure in our persons, places and things from random violence.
But the argument does not end here. The cold, heartless, SOBs that I'll call the "God Nuts" are out in force as well following the shooting. "Oh," they cry out, "the problem is that we don't allow prayer in the school any more!" Right - of course - we all know that if the children had been engaged in prayer when that gun nut tore into that school, God would have thrown up a defensive shield around the teachers and the children. Just as God does in every church shooting ever, or as he does for every religious person who dies as the result of violence. If you believe this, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell you.
No - the issue in this country for those of us with the ability to add 2 and 2 and get 4 - is to outlaw stupidity. Really - we need a constitutional amendment that outlaws "gun nuts" and "God nuts" so that we can toss all of these idiots in jail before they do the rest of us any more harm
Amen.
And so today, 2 days after the shooting in Connecticut, the post above was made on Facebook. Over 31 comments followed, all of them focused on the issue of protecting gun rights. A few questioned the logic, addressing an attack in China in which 22 children were stabbed (none died). And of course, the gun rights advocates questioned, "What will we do next, ban knives?"
I focus here so often on the inability of conservatives to think beyond step one or step two of any problem, and never has it been more evident in the discussion now going on over guns. But do you notice how dismissive this author is of the lives lost? Send "whatever" is how she dismisses the emotion that many of us feel over the loss of those innocent lives. Cold, cruel and convinced that anything that does not happen to her did not happen. She says we should focus on "mental status," but five will get you ten that she's not willing to see her taxes go up to cover the cost of treatment for folks like this.
Many of the "gun rights" nuts think that the way to solve the problem is to arm everyone. Whereas I envision a world where it is safe for me to go to work, to school, to the shopping mall, or to just be in my home safe from an attack from someone with an assault weapon, they envision a world in which we all walk around with side arms and assault weapons, ready for a shoot-out at any moment we feel uneasy with those around us.
In Michigan this week, the conservatives passed a law allowing guns in schools. Just imagine, they claim, how safe the children will be if everyone in school is armed. (Sarcasm mode on) Because we all know that no one in any school carrying a weapon could be the crazy one that turns the gun on staff or children. And just think - if we had only armed those deceased 6 and 7 year-old children in Connecticut, they could have drawn their guns from their little desks and started blasting away at the bad guy! Oh, what great fun that would have been! (Sarcasm mode off.)
I am a gun owner - have hunted for years and years - but I am adamantly opposed to the private ownership of assault weapons and handguns with clips holding more than 5 or 6 bullets at a time. They are not necessary. I know what the constitution says about the right to own guns. The constitution is not infallible - we've amended it 27 times - it can be amended again. The time has come to make us more secure in our persons, places and things from random violence.
But the argument does not end here. The cold, heartless, SOBs that I'll call the "God Nuts" are out in force as well following the shooting. "Oh," they cry out, "the problem is that we don't allow prayer in the school any more!" Right - of course - we all know that if the children had been engaged in prayer when that gun nut tore into that school, God would have thrown up a defensive shield around the teachers and the children. Just as God does in every church shooting ever, or as he does for every religious person who dies as the result of violence. If you believe this, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell you.
No - the issue in this country for those of us with the ability to add 2 and 2 and get 4 - is to outlaw stupidity. Really - we need a constitutional amendment that outlaws "gun nuts" and "God nuts" so that we can toss all of these idiots in jail before they do the rest of us any more harm
Amen.
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Pets in Heaven
Many Christians hope to be with their pets (dogs, cats) in heaven and don't realize that church doctrine says that since they can't accept Jesus as their savior (and they can't tithe), pets can't go to heaven. Just warning you, Christians.
The God in the Sky
God's in the sky because you have to put Him somewhere and they couldn't think of anything else. All the mountains worth owning were inhabited by the Roman and Greek Gods.
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