Bernie Sanders Condemns Murder of Charlie Kirk

I agree with everything Bernie says:

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Charlie Kirk Shot Dead at Utah College

California governor and prominent Democrat Gavin Newsom has posted this tweet on the murder of rightwing activist Chrarlie Kirk at a college in Utah today, and I agree with every word:

Kirk was no angel.  He was an archetypal bully - smug and self-righteous, with a cruel mouth.  But I'm sorry he was murdered.  Not only for the reasons Newsom stated - which are essential to civilized society and individual human decency - but also because of what the repercussions will be.

Yet the brainless vicious bitches over on the comments section of Joe.My.God.'s blog are whooping it up in celebration.  YOU STUPID JERKS.  Your attitude is as disgusting as anything that ever came out of Kirk's mouth.  You are not on some higher moral plane.  You are down there in the gutter with all the other self-righteous ratbastards of the world.  Cold-blooded murder is never a cause for celebration.

But I'll stop right there - the morality of all this, regardless of which side you are on, is obvious to any decent adult.  A society where it's okay to just shoot anybody you disagree with is not a society I wish to live in.  

I despised Kirk's hateful words and attitudes towards gays and all others who weren't just like him - I thought him an arrogant SOB just like the ones who beat, bullied, and humiliated me in high school, and were unkind in more subtle ways later on.  But my thoughts tonight are with Kirk's widow and two small children; no one should have to go through a tragedy like this, regardless of politics or religion.

From the Sermon on the Mount:

Click to enlarge.

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Thou Shalt Not Kill

For the sake of my own peace of mind, in recent months I have deliberately posted less and less about politics and all the terrible conflicts going on in the world. This old man knows that his tiny voice will make no difference - a whisper in a whirlwind - but for my own self-respect I must at least say this about the new holocaust in Gaza.

My friends, do you recall this horrific, nauseating balcony scene from Schindler's List?

That is what I immediately thought of that when I read this in the Guardian the other day:

[D]ozens of American doctors and nurses who served in Gaza . . . last year testified they had received the bodies of Palestinian children shot in the head or chest by Israeli snipers. Israeli soldiers have confessed that they are deliberately targeting children. Nick Maynard – a British doctor working in Gaza’s Nasser hospital – says that he is seeing clusters of young teenagers who have been shot in different body parts: on one day, it’s the abdomen, on another, the head or neck, on another, the testicles. “So there’s a very clear pattern and it’s almost as if a game is being played,” he says.

What is the difference between the movie scene and what is happening in Gaza now?  The answer is, none:  it is murder for sport.  Just like the filthy Nazi in the film.  If that is not an abomination in the eyes of God and all mankind, what is?

This devil's work has nothing to do with religion.  It would be the same whether the perpetrators were Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, atheist, or Martian.  Murder is murder.  And the word for murder of a whole nation or people is genocide.  If you need to see it with your own eyes, here are some videos that are very hard to watch - but the world is watching.  So is God.  And God is not partial.

A report from Turkish state television:

An American veteran describes the war crimes against civilians he saw perpetrated by other Americans working for the Israelis:

Dr. Nick Maynard, quoted above, describes the mass starvation and horrific target practice the Israeli Defence Force has been using on Gaza children:

A final comment from an editorial in the Guardian, emphasis mine:

Faced with the systematic destruction of Palestinian life in Gaza, other states must together produce a systematic, comprehensive and concrete response. If not now, when? What more would it take to convince them? This is first and foremost a catastrophe for Palestinians. But if states continue to allow international humanitarian law to be shredded, the repercussions will be felt by many more around the world in years to come. History will not ask whether these governments did anything to stop genocide by an ally, but whether they did all they could.

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The Whole World Is Watching

 For Ukraine

 

Chicago recorded this song in 1968, which includes a chant by protesters at the Democratic convention held there. Somehow, it seems to fit the events of 2022 as well. 

The slaughter of defenseless innocents, the murder of a nation, is horrible beyond the power of words to express. I was keeping up with the war news night and day for the first two weeks; then I had to take a break from it - a luxury no Ukrainian has, I am well aware. A few piddling projects here at home have occupied my time since then - between which, I weep for Ukraine, I rage at the rampant evil, I gnash my teeth at the nuclear standoff, the moral dilemma. Maybe you do, too. 

I have no power to change anything. All I can do is witness to the truth here on my little blog. It may do no one any good, but -- we are all witnesses to this enormous crime. That is our moral duty in this dark hour of human history, if we can do nothing else.

The whole world is watching.  

And we will not forget.

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From Radio Free Europe - "Who Will Bring Back Our Children?":

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Screen capture from CNN.  Click to enlarge.

The Guardian reports:  Mariupol: Russia accused of bombing theatre and swimming pool sheltering civilians.  Excerpt:

Ukrainian officials have accused Russian forces of further atrocities in the besieged city of Mariupol, including an airstrike on a theatre where hundreds of displaced people were believed to have been sheltering and a strike on a swimming pool where pregnant women and young children had gathered. Russian forces were also accused of shelling of a convoy of cars of civilians fleeing the city.

Mariupol has been facing a humanitarian catastrophe for days, and Russia continued to rain down fire on it and other Ukrainian cities on Wednesday, even as the two sides projected optimism over efforts at peace talks to negotiate an end to the fighting.

There was no immediate confirmation of numbers of deaths or injuries in what the Mariupol city council said was a “bomb on a building where hundreds of peaceful Mariupol residents were hiding.” “We don’t know if there are any survivors,” one witness said. “The bomb shelter is also covered with debris … there are both adults and children there.”

Later Pavlo Kyrylenko, the head of Donetsk regional administration, claimed Russians had also targeted the Neptune swimming pool. “Now there are pregnant women and women with children under the rubble there,” he said in a post on Telegram. “It is impossible to establish the number of casualties from these strikes.”

A witness who posted a video of the aftermath of the attack said the pool had been destroyed and efforts were under way to rescue one pregnant woman trapped in the rubble. . . .

Ukraine’s ministry of defence has described Mariupol as the worst front of the war. Mass graves have been dug on the outskirts of the city and the bodies of men, women and children have been left on the streets. More than 400,000 of its inhabitants are either without or with dwindling access to running water, food and medical supplies.

Local officials have said more than 2,500 have been killed. But the reality is that, because of the shelling, the dead cannot be counted.

Ukrainian officials also accused Russian forces of shelling a convoy of cars of civilians fleeing the city, wounding at least five people, including a child.

Local officials shared photos and videos of the aftermath of the alleged attack. “Heavy artillery of the enemy forces fired on a convoy of civilians moving along the highway towards Zaporizhzhia,” the governor of the region, Oleksandr Starukh, said in an online post. . . .

Officials have told families to leave their dead outside in the streets because holding funerals is too dangerous.

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From Radio Free Europe - Elderly couple shot to death by Russian tank:

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Baby-Killer Putin Bombs Maternity Hospital

The Russian butcher strikes again.  At women in labor.  At newborn infants.  In beseiged Mariupol, in the middle of a cease-fire.  Too horrible for words.

 

 

The Guardian reports (emphasis mine):

As Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmitryo Kuleba, accused Russia of “holding 400,000 people hostage” in Mariupol, much of whose population has been without power, heat, water or phone signal for over a week, the president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, denounced an atrocity.

“A children’s hospital, a maternity ward. How did they threaten the Russian Federation? What is this country, the Russian Federation, that is afraid of hospitals, maternity wards and is destroying them?” said Zelendskiy on Telegram.

“Hospitals and schools are destroyed. Churches and ordinary buildings are destroyed. People are killed. Children are killed. The aerial bombing of a children’s hospital is the ultimate evidence that genocide of Ukrainians is happening.”

Amid western warnings that Moscow’s invasion was about to become even more brutal as the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, seeks to regain stalled momentum, local authorities described the damage to the hospital – a combined 600-bed complex with children’s and maternity wards – as “colossal” and said at least 17 people had been wounded, including women in labour.

The deputy mayor, Sergei Orlov, said the city was being shelled continuously and 1,170 residents had died, 47 of whom were buried in a mass grave on Wednesday. “It’s medieval,” he said. “It’s pure genocide. The attack isn’t simply treacherous. It’s a war crime. They are attacking us with aviation, shells, multiple rocket launchers.” . . .

Zelenskiy said on Wednesday the threat level against the country was “at the maximum” and again called on the west to impose a no-fly zone, saying it risked a “humanitarian catastrophe” if it did not.

He called the Russians “Nazis” in an interview with Sky News, saying: “If you are united against the Nazis and this terror, you have to close. Don’t wait for me ask you several times, a million times. Close the sky.” He warned that otherwise “millions” of people could die.

I know the hearts of my truckbuddies, and of all decent people around the world, go out to these innocent victims of cold-blooded murder. 

In the face of such atrocities, President Zelensky says the West has a moral duty to help Ukraine, to stop the wholesale slaughter of innocents. 

We do. But how? Without incinerating billions more people in a nuclear holocaust? 

How, O Lord, how? Show us the way. Amen. 

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Update, 3/9/22, 9:30 p.m.:  PUTIN THREATENED TO NUKE US LAST DECEMBER

Searching through news reports, I just happened to come across this chilling article from the Daily Beast, December 21, 2021:

Russian Citizens Are Now Being Prepped for Nuclear War

One day after Moscow submitted a draft of its Russia-U.S. security treaty, containing demands that NATO roll back its military deployments in Europe and deny membership to Ukraine and other post-Soviet countries, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov threatened that Moscow would raise the stakes if the West didn’t treat its demands seriously. On Monday, he told Interfax that Russia needs answers “urgently, because the situation is very difficult.” , . .

Pro-Kremlin propagandists and state-media experts filled in the blanks with what kind of escalation should be expected. On Sunday’s edition of News of the Week, state-TV host Dmitry Kiselyov explained: “Russia… prepared and handed over to the Americans its written proposals on strategic stability, or, more simply, on the prevention of nuclear war, since we are already at a critical point, to be honest…

"It’s simple. The U.S. and NATO must roll back from our borders, otherwise we will, figuratively speaking, ‘roll up’ to their borders and create symmetrical, unacceptable risks… If you put a gun to our head, we will respond in kind… The whole point is that the development of the Ukrainian territory by the [Western] bloc is not only Ukraine’s business. This is a complete breakdown of the global balance, which poses an existential threat to Russia. In other words, for Russia it is a matter of life and death… We simply will not allow it, regardless of the cost to us, and regardless of the cost to those responsible for it.”

Kiselyov, notorious for his previous assertion that Russia is the only country that can reduce the U.S. to a pile of radioactive ash, revisited his beloved “argument” to explain why the United States will be willing to entertain Putin’s unreasonable proposition. He asserted that Russia is willing to suffer any consequences and go to any lengths to get what it wants: “Never before has anyone published the texts of the proposed treaties. But never before in the 21st century has the situation been so acute, and the risks so great. Non-standard situations require non-standard approaches. Secondly, we’re holding very strong cards in our hands. Our hypersonic weapons are guaranteed to produce a response that is so unpleasant for America to hear: being reduced to radioactive ash.”

This horrifies me.  I don't remember hearing about this blood-curdling threat, given in plain English - but then, back in December I wasn't listening for it.  Why wasn't this front-page news?

Did anybody in Washington hear this warning?  Did anyone take it seriously?  What did they do?  How did they respond? 

Washington was warned about Russia's intentions with Ukraine, but was anybody minding the store?  Is anyone?  

God have mercy.

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Another Outrageous Shooting - WHY?

Because we are night owls here, out of sync with the rest of the world, and because we don't watch TV news, your Head Trucker often does not see the big stories until a day or two after the rest of you.

Overnight, I had a chance to get caught up on the Jacob Blake shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin.  And I am furious.  Not all the details of what happened are yet available, it seems, but the HORRIFIC video shot by a bystander clearly shows Blake walking away from several policemen following him with drawn guns.

By the time he reaches the door of his SUV, one officer is close enough to grab his shirt.  As Blake continues to open the door and tries to get into the vehicle, the officer starts shooting him in the back - seven or more shots can be heard.

Why shoot a man in the back who apparently was not armed and not threatening the officers?  Walking away from police who were yelling at him to stop was a totally stupid thing to do, granted.  But from what I can see on the video, there is NO EXCUSE for what the cop did.  He could have stopped him several other ways besides shooting him.

And it seems Blake's three young children were in the SUV at the time, watching all this.  HORRIBLE.

Blake is in hospital fighting for his life.  And rioters are tearing up the city of Kenosha.

Has no one told the police in Kenosha - and all through the rest of the USA - to fucking STOP KILLING BLACK PEOPLE?

Three months after George Floyd was slowly, agonizingly murdered on a pavement in Minneapolis, and this shit is STILL HAPPENING?

DOES NO ONE HAVE ANY CONTROL OVER THE COPS ANYMORE?

IS THIS AMERICA OR AMERIKKKA?   IS THIS A POLICE STATE?  Does anybody CARE??

Sorry to sound so extreme, guys, but there's no reason for this shit to still be happening.  Every cop in the nation should have gotten the word by now.  WHO IS IN CHARGE OF THE COPS ON THE STREET, AND WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY DOING ABOUT IT???

I don't condone or excuse all the rioting and violence at all.  But obviously, it's not going to stop as long as the cops keep MURDERING people at will, with no punishment and no control.  Of course the country is going to fall apart if it doesn't STOP RIGHT FUCKING NOW.

And if the cops are a law unto themselves, then NOBODY IS SAFE.  They can kill anybody they please, anytime, anywhere.  You or me or Grandma or Uncle John.  Anyone.

Black lives matter.  Justice matters.  Simple human decency matters.  I don't know what else to say.

I know I don't want to hear pretty words of sympathy and sorrow from any goddamn politicians high or low, left or right.  I want somebody to take real action, take control of the cops, and STOP THE MADNESS NOW!   STOP KILLING BLACK PEOPLE!!  JUST STOP STOP STOP IT!!!

God bless Jacob Blake and his family.  God help us all.


P. S. , 8/26/20 -- I just saw an opinion piece by a journalist in Wisconsin saying, "I don't believe any police academy trains them to murder someone like that." Oh, but they do.  That's the problem.

See my June 11 post, "Killer Cops - The Why and the How," for a couple of eye-opening video reports on this very subject.

Westminster Attack

Map from the BBC report; click to enlarge.

A crazed terrorist plowed through pedestrians on Westminster Bridge in London today, then tried to enter Parliament.  Your Head Trucker has once upon a time walked across that very bridge, and up and down the Thames embankment there in the shadow of Big Ben, so he feels this as a rather personal affront.  My heart goes out to all the victims and their families, and to the British people.

This grievous outrage, this demonic disregard for human life is beyond horrifying.  I don't know how Western society can ever rid itself of the murderous microbes it is infected with, without suppressing all civil liberties for the rest of the population, but something has to be done.  This cannot go on.

BBC report on the attack.

Telegraph report.

Guardian report.

Prime Minister Theresa May was in Parliament at the time of the attack and was quickly taken to safety by her security guards.  She later made a statement to the press in front of Number 10 Downing Street:




Update, 3/23/17, 4:20 p.m.: I am pleased to see that the old indomitable British spirit is still very much alive, as witness this computer-generated Underground notice now making the rounds of social media over there:

The Prime Minister and others praised it in Parliament, as the Guardian reports here.

At the Intersection of Hate and Murder

I am still trying to take in what happened in Orlando, but although I've read numerous accounts of the massacre, I still feel strangely numb - I think it's just too big and too horrible to comprehend.  And too much of the same old hate, hate, hate we have all endured for a lifetime, a nightmare fear now brought to a terrible reality.

But I offer a couple things to my readers today, for consideration. First, I am irritated with the media-manufactured controversy on whether it was terrorism or a hate crime, or whether it was directed at gays or at Americans, and yada yada yada. Of course it was ALL those things at the same time, and more. I couldn't find an image to convey what I mean, so I made up this simple graphic of what seem to me to be the four main causes of this crime:

It's important, very important I think, to see ALL these factors as valid causes of this tragedy; human beings are complex, and people rarely do anything just for one simple reason.

If you don't believe me, just ask yourself why you ate what you ate for breakfast this morning, or for dinner last night - whatever you put in your mouth, was it because you were on a diet, or falling off one, because the cupboard was bare or overflowing, because you were sick or well, tired or inspired, or because you ate alone at home or out with friends, or, or, or - what?

And perhaps a few more causes could be added to my graphic; for example, I just read this brief but highly significant report in the Orlando Sentinel:

Gunman Omar Mateen visited gay nightclub a dozen times before shooting, witness says

Was he casing the joint, or was he locked in a closet of self-loathing and trying to break out?

And I am quite touched by this interview with the murderer's father - despite my anger and grief, I see a man struggling to come to terms with his own enormous pain and loss, and not yet quite understanding the part he played, at second hand as a parent, in this massacre:

Father of Orlando Mass Murderer Apologizes, Clarifies

(Video not embeddable by me)


The Orlando victims have been remembered around the nation and the world: in New York, the Empire State Building spire went dark in mourning, while the World Trade Center spire was lit in rainbow colors last night:

Embed from Getty Images

Embed from Getty Images

In Sydney, Australia, the harbor bridge was lit in rainbow colors too:

Embed from Getty Images

Crowds gathered at the Eiffel Tower in Paris:

Embed from Getty Images

One man held a sign saying, "We are a 'certain idea of the world,' never targeted 'by chance'" - a riff on a famous quote by Charles de Gaulle:

Embed from Getty Images

The Eiffel Tower was lit in the colors of the rainbow:

Embed from Getty Images

While an illuminated balloon bore the colors of Old Glory:

Amsterdam also remembered at the Royal Palace:

Embed from Getty Images

Crowds gathered in Seoul:

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And on a beach in India:

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And in London, a vigil was held in Soho:

Embed from Getty Images

Will it ever end?  A chilling report from the Guardian: 1,000 mass shootings in 1,260 days.

The Pope and the Atheists

Pope Francis, in a homily he gave today in Rome (found via Andrew Sullivan):

"The Lord created us in His image and likeness, and we are the image of the Lord, and He does good and all of us have this commandment at heart: do good and do not do evil. All of us. ‘But, Father, this is not Catholic! He cannot do good.’ Yes, he can. He must. Not can: must! Because he has this commandment within him. Instead, this ‘closing off’ that imagines that those outside, everyone, cannot do good is a wall that leads to war and also to what some people throughout history have conceived of: killing in the name of God. That we can kill in the name of God. And that, simply, is blasphemy. To say that you can kill in the name of God is blasphemy.”

“Instead,” the Pope continued, “the Lord has created us in His image and likeness, and has given us this commandment in the depths of our heart: do good and do not do evil”:

"The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone! ‘Father, the atheists?’ Even the atheists. Everyone! And this Blood makes us children of God of the first class! We are created children in the likeness of God and the Blood of Christ has redeemed us all! And we all have a duty to do good. And this commandment for everyone to do good, I think, is a beautiful path towards peace. If we, each doing our own part, if we do good to others, if we meet there, doing good, and we go slowly, gently, little by little, we will make that culture of encounter: we need that so much. We must meet one another doing good. ‘But I don’t believe, Father, I am an atheist!’ But do good: we will meet one another there.”

This does sound like a different kind of Pope.


A further thought: Turning from the contemplation of these high and lovely thoughts to the utterly barbarous and demonic beheading of a British soldier in the streets of London in broad daylight, your Head Trucker finds no room in his heart to countenance any further shilly-shallying with the violent and the malign among us. This sickening act, like that of the bombing in Boston last month, is beyond all decency, a crime against humanity, and it must be stopped now - by whatever means necessary.

The crazies and the fanatics must not be allowed to roam freely among us and kill us at their whim; the Constitution is not a suicide pact.

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America: The Evil Empire?

Click to enlarge.

A very timely video, via Andrew Sullivan:



It occurs to your Head Trucker that while we now think the President will be revered by future generations for his legacies of such good things as Obamacare and gay rights - it's possible that those accomplishments will be overshadowed by his use of unrestrained drone warfare in Afghanistan or anywhere else in the whole world that the Administration takes a notion to drop a bomb on unsuspecting civilians, without warning or mercy, at any moment of the day or night.

No charges pressed - no law violated - no chance to surrender - no court of appeal - no defense. Just a quick, soft whistle in the air, and Boom! You're dead.  Too bad, man:  your name was on The List.  And all your family too, old and young and babes in arms. Nothing left but a bloody, mangled mess, a butcher's nightmare.  Even the pieces are unrecognizable.

Cui bono?

If this is not evil, what is?

The President's Speech at the Sandy Hook Vigil

Last night in Newtown, Connecticut - one of his finest:



Excerpt:

Can we say that we’re truly doing enough to give all the children of this country the chance they deserve to live out their lives in happiness and with purpose?

I’ve been reflecting on this the last few days, and if we’re honest with ourselves, the answer is no. We’re not doing enough. And we will have to change.

Since I’ve been President, this is the fourth time we have come together to comfort a grieving community torn apart by a mass shooting. The fourth time we’ve hugged survivors. The fourth time we’ve consoled the families of victims. And in between, there have been an endless series of deadly shootings across the country, almost daily reports of victims, many of them children, in small towns and big cities all across America -- victims whose -- much of the time, their only fault was being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

We can’t tolerate this anymore. These tragedies must end. And to end them, we must change. We will be told that the causes of such violence are complex, and that is true. No single law -- no set of laws can eliminate evil from the world, or prevent every senseless act of violence in our society.

But that can’t be an excuse for inaction. Surely, we can do better than this. If there is even one step we can take to save another child, or another parent, or another town, from the grief that has visited Tucson, and Aurora, and Oak Creek, and Newtown, and communities from Columbine to Blacksburg before that -- then surely we have an obligation to try.

In the coming weeks, I will use whatever power this office holds to engage my fellow citizens -- from law enforcement to mental health professionals to parents and educators -- in an effort aimed at preventing more tragedies like this. Because what choice do we have? We can’t accept events like this as routine. Are we really prepared to say that we’re powerless in the face of such carnage, that the politics are too hard? Are we prepared to say that such violence visited on our children year after year after year is somehow the price of our freedom?

Full text here.


Now the great gun-control debate will begin, and before another year is out, your Head Trucker predicts, some kind of new law will be passed, which will please very few people on either side, but not until a great deal of hooting and hollering and carrying on from both sides has been heard - and in the long run, it will be found not to solve the problem, after all.

But in the midst of all that, your Head Trucker wishes his good truckbuddies would please keep close in mind the following stories, none of which have any connection with guns - and see what that does for your thinking. Don't brush them off as being irrelevant - they are directly relevant to the greater topic here, for those who have eyes to see.

A gruesome case from last year:

Trial underway for suspect in Arlington pastor's murder

Another, unrelated case from this year:

Minister's killer had mental illness, wife says

And from China, the same day as the Sandy Hook shootings:

22 kids slashed in China elementary school knife attack

Of course, if you live in a metropolitan area of any size, you don't have to rely on these stories alone: just read your daily paper.

The President Speaks on the Connecticut School Shooting

In the Briefing Room of the White House, President Obama made an emotional address to the nation about the killing of 27 children and adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, yesterday:




My sympathies also go out to all the victims and their loved ones. Despite the President's moving words, however, I just don't believe anything will change as a result of this latest horror.

It's been nearly 14 years since the Columbine massacre; 5 years since the Virginia Tech slaughter; and still things rock along just as they did then, and nobody has done a single thing to stop these tragedies from happening.

Your Head Trucker is not going to discuss here the whys and wherefores and causes and effects; plenty of people are paid to do that, and you're going to be hearing what they think in the days to come. And most of them will be utterly wrong.

And whether anyone is right or wrong, nothing - absolutely nothing - will change. Except that this kind of thing will happen more and more often. You will just get used to it and accept it with a shrug as a normal, if sad, part of this mad modern world we live in.

Won't you?


Further Reading:

List of rampage killers in the Americas

List of rampage killers: School massacres

List of rampage killers: Workplace killings

List of rampage killers: Familicides


From these lists, please note that you can quite easily maim and massacre bunches of people with knives, machetes, spears, swords, clubs, bombs, molotov cocktails, grenades, etc., as you can with guns.  Which is what happens in countries where civilians aren't allowed to own guns. Like China.

Do keep that fact in mind while you are listening to the forthcoming ya-ya debates over gun control, and see what it does for your thinking.

Sunday Drive: Eleanor Rigby

I searched for a hymn but nothing sounded right today. Only this.

Is it possible, just possible, do you think, that instead of Right and Left using all these horrible murders - which are now become routine, a new horror every week in every city and town across the land, it almost seems - to score points off each other with outrageous, unprovable accusations - could it be just barely possible that the fault has nothing at all to do with politics of any stripe - but with ourselves?

Fear and Loathing in East Texas - and Elsewhere

Just to show you that the next post about the Arkansas Asshole, Clint McCance, is not unusual at all in these parts, here's proof.  The NBC affilliate in Tyler, Texas - about a hundred miles southeast of Dallas - asked its viewers today, "Will the gays destroy America?"

The listener comments start at the 2:40 mark.  And no, the voices you hear are not from Central Casting - trust me, they're real, and that's what I'm surrounded by down here, guys.  My own people, my fellow Texans and Southerners - I'm ashamed to say.

Although there are, surprisingly, some supportive voices too.  I'm surprised the station included them.



Honk to Joe.My.God.


And in this context, it's fitting to note that by curious coincidence, today is the anniversary of Allen Schindler's stomping death at the hands of fellow U. S. Navy sailors in 1992:

Airman Apprentice Terry M. Helvey, who was a member of the ship's weather department (OA Division, Operations Department), stomped Schindler to death in a toilet in a park in Sasebo, Nagasaki. He was left lying on the bathroom floor until the Shore Patrol and the key witness to the incident carried out Schindler's body to the nearby Albuquerque Bridge. Schindler had "at least four fatal injuries to the head, chest, and abdomen," his head was crushed, ribs broken, and his penis cut, and he had "sneaker-tread marks stamped on his forehead and chest" destroying "every organ in his body" leaving behind a "nearly-unrecognizable corpse" that was only identifiable by the tattoo on his arm.

Any mother's son from Mari Fagel on Vimeo.


Don't think it can't happen here.  Don't think it can't happen to you, fucker.  It can, very easily.  Especially if the Tea Party comes to power.  They're already starting to stomp on people's heads.

I'm doing early voting tomorrow.  The Republicans will as usual win nearabouts every office, but by God I'm not going to just hand it all to them for free.

You are planning to vote in this election - aren't you?

Matthew Shepard: 12 Years

Yesterday was the twelfth anniversary of Matthew Shepard's death, which for a time seemed to galvanize the attention of the nation on the problem of homophobia.  Perhaps the recent teen suicides will have a similar effect.  Matthew's mother Judy Shepard speaks on this topic:

Reality Check: Parents and Children

It's always necessary to think carefully when discussing big issues, and avoid wishful thinking and sweeping generalizations.  Because what sometimes feels like truth isn't necessarily so.  Feelings are not facts.

For example, the SF Chronicle reports on today's Perry v. Schwarzenegger trial happenings:

The plaintiffs presented academic witnesses who said allowing gays and lesbians to marry would benefit the couples and their children and improve the status of marriage without affecting opposite-sex couples.

The ballot measure's defenders said it merely reaffirmed traditional marriage, but their chief witness for Prop. 8's benefits was [historian David] Blankenhorn, who has spent two decades arguing against same-sex marriage. His 1995 book, "Fatherless America," contended that attacks on the traditional family had weakened the bonds between fathers and children.

Scholars overwhelmingly agree, he testified Tuesday, that marriage is "a socially approved sexual relationship between a man and a woman" and that the "optimal environment" for children is with their married, biological parents.

Now look at that last statement:  it sure paints a pretty picture, doesn't it?  An Ozzie and Harriet, Leave It to Beaver, It's a Wonderful Life kind of world.  In fact, the kind of world, and family, that most of us probably wish we'd had when we were growing up.

But is it really true?  For all children?  With all biological parents?  Always?  Really?

Read these two news items and make up your own mind about what the reality of life is.

Father Kills Wife and Twins on Sons' Birthday

Susan Smith Wants New Trial for Killing Sons

Now, if these had been gay parents, oh can't you just imagine what the Christianists and the rightwingers would be saying about all that, and what it "proves" about gay people?

Obama: Got Guts?

Yes, my friends, we are right to be disappointed and upset about the slow progress of equality and civil rights, including marriage rights, ENDA, DADT, and UAFA.

But in the midst of our justified anger, fellas - do keep it all in perspective.  My truckbuddy David Mixner, long-time activist, recently called the current situation in the United States "gay apartheid."

Now David has paid his dues and been on the front lines for civil rights for all Americans since the Vietnam era; and he's worthy of a lot of respect from those of us who, unlike David, have never been beaten or jailed for taking a public stand.

But I do think his phrase overstates the case.  As I've posted recently myself, things could be worse, much, much worse for gays, and in my own lifetime, they have been.

So while we're pissing and moaning about our own government - give a thought to the holocaust our brothers and sisters in Uganda are facing right now.

And I say, even if Obama doesn't do another goddamn thing for gays in his whole life, he must speak out against this genocide about to happen in Uganda.  Mixner thinks so too.  Don't you agree, boys? 

From Andrew Sullivan:

This gay Ugandan blogger's latest post is here - a heart-rending blend of disbelief, optimism and pessimism. From the comments section, a reader asks:

I hope the bill wont see the light of the day. How about your safety and that of other gay men at the moment?

The blogger's response:

Ha, life is unfair. No real assurance, or insurance to it.

Ok, seriously, what about our safety? Well, we are making lots of noise as and when we can now. When the bill becomes law, those of us who are out will be most likely hauled in for any more 'promotion' of homosexuality...!

But, sometimes, sometimes it is actually worth the while to hang out ones neck. Afterall, I will only die once.... Gallows humour. But, better than nothing.

"I will only die once." God have mercy.  The courage of the defenseless - the courage of St. Sebastian.

This law was inspired and directed by American fundamentalists, showing just exactly what they would do to us if only they could.

Wayne Besen, Truth Wins Out:

Earlier tonight, Rachel Maddow aired an excellent 10-minute news segment about the Republican and evangelical leaders who, despite deep ties to Uganda, refuse to tell their close friends in the Ugandan leadership not to proceed with an antigay genocide and mass suppression of the families, doctors, and pastors of allegedly homosexual Ugandans.

The segment implicates Senators James Inhofe, R-Okla.; Sam Brownback, R-Kan.; Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla.; Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., members of The Family, mega-evangelist Rick Warren, and others in silent complicity with genocide.

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Bottom Line:  You can tell the President what you think he should do about this murderous plan here.  He wants to hear from you, he said so during the campaign many times - remember?

I remember, as I've posted, being beaten by homophobic bullies in high school; yet they broke no bones, drew no blood, the only lasting scars were those on my soul.  But I hate a bully.  I look at what's happening in Uganda now, and I see the same thing, a million times worse, about to happen.  And I think, there but for the grace of God am I.

Will Obama stand up for just one shining moment and tell the bullies to back off and leave the little guy alone?  Does he have the guts to take a stand for what's decent, for all those precious human rights he loves to speechify about?  Will he lift one finger to protect those at the mercy of religious hatred over there? 

Will you?

Write.  You voted for him, didn't you?  You're paying his salary.  He owes us this much.  At the very least.

P.S. - This law will go into effect next month, if passed.  Time is short.  And I'm furious that other world leaders - Gordon Brown and Stephen Harper, to name just two - have already spoken out face to face with Ugandan leaders - but not one damn peep out of my President.

Why the hell aren't you East Coast boys picketing the gates of the White House already?  And the Ugandan embassy?  You got guts?  Or at least nuts?  Or not? 

Or is it really true, what they say about all us sissies?  You tell me.

Shootings in Orlando

One dead, six wounded. By a guy who was fired two years ago from an engineering company, where he returned today with a gun.

Jeezus. How do you keep guns out of the hands of crazy people? Here, Ft. Hood, Virginia Tech, and all the other incidents.  And even if they are perfectly sane when they buy a gun, how do you know they won't go postal one day far down the road?

I've never had very strong feelings about gun control one way or the other, but I'm starting to question that. Maybe it's the part of the country I grew up in. If you live way out in the woods you're a fool if you don't have some kind of firearm on the property, for several reasons.

And I've known little old ladies who lived in town who slept much better at night, living alone, because they kept a pistol on the night stand by their bed.

But from Columbine to now - this is ridiculous. I don't know what the answer is exactly, but we just can't go on this way.

Today's Quotes: The Christianists' Aim

A reader who is a Kansas minister writes to Andrew Sullivan about the horrific murder of Dr. George Tiller, shot dead at his church in Wichita yesterday:

I have come to the conclusion that the Christianists' aim is the simple denial of God’s grace to anyone who may have a broader vision of the love of Christ.

Do they not understand that each day that Dr. Tiller lived was another opportunity for grace to prevail? For some that grace may have meant he saved the life of a woman needing access to a safe abortion, to others perhaps that grace would’ve been his own turning away from his practice. But the point is whenever we presume to be the gatekeepers of God’s love and grace, we ourselves are turning away from God.

Another abortion doctor, Warren Hearn, had this to say in an interview with the Colorado Independent:

We don’t have to invade Iraq to find terrorists. They’re right here killing abortion doctors. Every doctor that does abortions has been under an assassination threat for decades. The anti-abortion movement message is, "Do what we tell you to do or we will kill you," and they do. This is a fascist movement.

Sullivan is blogging extensively on the murder, and publishing numerous moving letters from readers whose poignant stories clearly show why sometimes a late-term abortion is the most merciful choice that can be made, like this story and this one.