Rant :
Too many beloved "celebrities", actors, musicians, writers or speakers with a popular public voice, loyal listeners and fans, who could do a great deal of awareness raising and encouraging the holding of feet to fires remain silent or continue to ass-kiss the President and his party. They effetely cling to their precious Democrat label and loyalties, will avoid speaking up about the more than obvious shortcomings of their party and their President. There are numerous issues outstanding crying out for the "feet to fire" treatment - not least this latest tragedy when yet again a deranged person found easy access to powerful weapons, resulting in the cold-blooded murder of 20 small children and 6 adults, including, allegedly, the victim's mother. Tragic as these murders are, no less tragic are the continuing murders of children and innocents by US drones abroad....let us never forget that point!
I find those "limousine Democrats" who fail to speak out, who fail to criticise and fail to do what the President has, more than once, told citizens to do i.e. "make him do it" (whatever the "it"), to be thoroughly reprehensible. The need for raised voices increases almost by the hour on: gun control, against indiscriminate drone use, the serious measures needed to address climate change, all of these are far more important than gay marriage laws and abortion laws, even more important than that darned fiscal cliff - they really are; these are issues of life and death.
29 comments:
Yes, what is it with people? Even a couple of vegans I know in the US are saying things like, "Guns don't make people into homicidal maniacs". You would think they would be more anti-gun, with guns being so widely used for hunting/shooting. Of course guns don't make people do this, but lax gun laws make it easier for things like this to happen.
` that's the truth! too much blabber about mickey mouse issues.
You would think people would connect the dots. USA ... not good place re workers' rights, death penalty, global warming ... gee, maybe those people we know in the UK and Australia and New Zealand and Canada have a point about this also.
I'm not saying that the other issues don't matter.
From Vanilla Rose - originally went on wrong thread of comments:
This religious guy annoys me: http://www.secularnewsdaily.com/2012/12/fischer-god-didnt-stop-ct-school-shooting-because-hes-a-gentleman-who-doesnt-go-where-he-is-not-wanted.
Vanilla Rose ~~ Hard to understand attitudes isn't it?
The religious guy's comment is beyond dreadful!
JassiJ ~~ Indeed!
Well, not to be disrespectful, but it's the ENTIRE world, not just the USA! 2008 Finland Kauhajoki, 10 dead...2011 Norway government building, then children's camp, 69 dead, 319 injured...2001 Indian Parliament, 12 dead...on and on and on. Along with today's tragedy in CT, 20 kids were knifed in China. We rarely hear about the "every day" murders that occur globally. I follow the national news in the USA and the smaller, violent murders are rarely reported nationally anymore unless the perpetrator or victim is well known or it's one of those days when the total number of homicides in a city is exceptional (Chicago!).
There are many more atrocities that go beyond your list, Twilight...it doesn't usually concern most people, at least not for any length of time, unless it happens in their own backyard and directly affects them.
The USA is fighting two direct wars right now in the name of terrorism, plus invading other countries suspected of supporting terrorism. We have more home-grown terrorists right here in our homeland that have caused so much havoc (Aurora, Columbine, CT, etc, etc.) My own mother was a victim of a home invasion robbery, physically assaulted...pretty much lost her mind for the next ten years and is now in a nursing home...never quite recovered. It's all a form of terrorism.
The drug lord wars in Mexico is one of my peeves. Our American drug habits have caused so much terrorism and murder in that country. Legalize drugs and control the distribution...it's been proven by other countries to work by legalizing!
Have you followed the opium poppy growers' plight in Afghanistan? Their children are taken and used as sex slaves when the poppy fields are destroyed by the UN and the growers' debts cannot be paid. Many countries are involved with child sex trafficking.
It's a strange world we have created...I suspect it always has been. Perhaps our largest egregious behavior has been directed at the natural world. Maybe humans do not have a place in nature.
"Yet we seemingly tolerate a rising level of violence that ignores our common humanity and our claims to civilization alike. We calmly accept newspaper reports of civilian slaughter in far off lands. We glorify killing on movie and television screens and call it entertainment. We make it easy for men of all shades of sanity to acquire weapons and ammunition they desire.
"Too often we honor swagger and bluster and the wielders of force; too often we excuse those who are willing to build their own lives on the shattered dreams of others. Some Americans who preach nonviolence abroad fail to practice it here at home. Some who accuse others of inciting riots have by their own conduct invited them.
"Some looks for scapegoats, others look for conspiracies, but this much is clear; violence breeds violence, repression brings retaliation, and only a cleaning of our whole society can remove this sickness from our soul."
- Robert F Kennedy, April 1968
XO
WWW
To give such an ease and a free way to use the guns is a mad American thing, you are not in the West anymore...
Or are you still...
It is being said that the shooter's mother owned 5 guns. How many would it take to defend her home against burglars? I am assuming that she could only use 2 at once, maximum. Even the characters in "The Matrix" only managed to fire 2 guns at once, and that was fiction.
mike ~~ Violence is everywhere - yes. We can only hope to find a way reduce it in our own country, where The People are supposed to have power to effect change. I know this is theory rather than fact as things are at present. We certainly cannot do anything at all about events in Finland, Norway, India and other countries you mention. We could, if enough people demanded it strongly enough, do something to help the situation here.
Mayor Bloomberg has my utmost respect for his words yesterday:
“The country needs him (the President) to send a bill to Congress to fix this problem," Bloomberg wrote. "Calling for ‘meaningful action’ is not enough. We need immediate action. We have heard all the rhetoric before. What we have not seen is leadership – not from the White House and not from Congress. That must end today. This is a national tragedy and it demands a national response.”
Wisewebwoman ~ Yes, wonderful quote, WWW.
Removing "the sickness from our soul" is an enormous task - it has to start somewhere, sometime. It has to start with the public's will to do it. A good time is now, and a good start would be to at least attempt to reduce the likelihood of further mass murders in the pattern yesterday's tragedy, and so many earlier ones, by demanding much tighter gun regulation.
Chomp ~~ Yes, seen from almost any angle, we are still the Wild West.
It's long past time for change.
Vanilla Rose ~~ Information is reaching media in dribs and drabs. Nothing makes sense at present. I can't imagine why she'd have needed that many.
The guys mother bought the guns_ he should have been in an asylum- remember those- insurance companys pretty much eliminated them but they are a nesesary evil in this world
Anonymous ~~ On first reading your comment I wasn't sure whether you meant that guns are a necessary evil - or asylums are a necessary evil. A re-reading clarified it - I think - You're saying that because of the state of health care, and in particular mental health care, in the USA, due to greedy insurance corporations, there is not sufficient attention and care paid to those with mental disorders of some kind.
I agree. That's another factor which, added to the ease of gun accessibility, has brought about so much devastation to so many families. We don't know full facts yet, but it seems likely, once again, that a young man suffering mental disturbance was the person doing the killing and injuring.
Twilight, I have never been an advocate of guns or any weapons, so I support your comments fully. However, the issue of guns is much like so many other issues in the USA...polarizing.
The NRA has held tremendous influence over politic$...most Americans love the right to have arms, as our constitution provides. NRA members argue that guns don't kill, people do, and the NRA lobbie$ big time.
Here's a quote from Bill Clinton:
"You will never get any action on this until it's just as big a voting issue for the people who are for responsible gun measures... as it's for the people who are against it.... I don't know how many conversations I have had with people like you who say: I just don't understand it! 65 percent of the people were for closing the gun show loophole. Why won't they do that? I'll tell you Why. Because of the 65 percent only 10 percent will vote against you if you disagree with them. Of the 35 percent who don't want it closed, 30 percent of them will vote against you. So the real poll is not 65 percent to 35 percent for (closing the loophole), it's 30 percent to 10 percent against. And not many politicians can lose 20 percent of the vote and still win an election. So if you really care about this don't ask the politicians why they don't have any guts... ask their voters why it's not a voting issue for them!"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-p-owens/gun-violence_b_2303806.html (12-14-12)
So, while I appreciate your intent by supplying Mayor Bloomberg's quote, I would have to say that I think Clinton is correct..."...ask their voters why it's not a voting issue for them!"
Clinton's remarks about closing the "gun show loophole" would not have prevented this tragedy, even if that loophole had been closed. The mother of the perpetrator had the guns legally and managed them responsibly.
Regarding concealed weapons, this decision was just issued, and gun control was defeated:
"The debate is over. We won. And there will be a statewide carry law in 2013," said Todd Vandermyde, a lobbyist for the National Rifle Association.
In a split opinion (see below), the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court ruling in two cases downstate that upheld the state's longstanding prohibition against carrying concealed weapons.
Illinois is the only state with an outright prohibition on concealed carry.
http://blogs.suntimes.com/politics/2012/12/big_win_for_gun-rights_groups_federal_appeals_court_tosses_state_ban_on_carrying_concealed_weapons.html
Gun control and reduction is an admiral goal, but black markets have proved very effective at supplying illicit demands.
The reports available today indicate that Adam Lanza was a remarkable student, bit of a nerd, but NOT mentally ill. He has interesting astrology and had transits triggering his natal (born April 22, 1992).
mike ~~ Re your point:
Bill Clinton:
"You will never get any action on this until it's just as big a voting issue for the people who are for responsible gun measures... as it's for the people who are against it..."
That view relates loosely to a comment I read today which I'll take the liberty of copying here
to a piece. It's from a thread under
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/12/15-0
Comment by NC_TOM
When will it stop? My guess is if someday it affects the super rich, the very wealthy donors to the Washington politicians, it would most likely stop then. Do we all really think the two parties would do nothing if those that grease their campaigns with obscene amounts of money started getting picked off by the dozen by nuts with guns?
Right now TPTB look at gun rights for the masses as a useful distraction, like religion, gay marriage, abortion, etc. As long as the mass killing that guns make so easy are isolated to average folk they couldn't care less.
Although they have no empathy for average people, my guess is that TPTB got PLENTY of it for those in their class. So if nuts with guns started killing dozens of politically engaged billionaires there would be a crack down on gun ownership in this country so fast and so hard your head would spin.
My guess is the M$M would kick into high gear saying anyone who owned a weapon with more firepower than a squirt gun was a domestic terrorist. Then people would be handing in their guns because it would be pounded into their heads by the massive Amerikan PR machine that it was the patriotic thing to do.
Remember gun ownership is NOT a right, it is a privilege that can, and is easily taken away by the ruling class ALL the time. Throw somebody in jail on either real or trumped up felony charges and when they get out they are not allowed to own a gun any more. Martial law? Hand in your guns, and if you refuse to they'll bring in a drone strike. The government will then say they had no choice because you were a dangerous Timothy McVey type. This will be repeated ad nauseam by the M$M leaving no doubt in most peoples minds that it must be true.
If the very rich ever did come under attack, it would not surprise me at all if the SCOTUS didn't reinterpret the Second Amendment, and say that only gun owners who were part of a well regulated militia would be allowed to own guns. Then TPTB would make damn sure that only loyal followers were allowed into those militias.
If you don't think this is what would happen, then you don't know how things really work in this country. Repeated attacks like the ones that keep happening in schools for the 99% like the one yesterday, simply would NOT under ANY circumstances EVER be tolerated if they were made against the extremely rich and politically connected class.
Killing kindergarteners is an acceptable cost of doing business to much of the Washington elite, killing billionaires on the other hand, is not.
That makes sense. i think he's right. But would it ever happen? Doubtful.
What can happen, though, I'll say again, is to "make Obama do it" as he has asked us to do when he seems to be doing nothing about something we need to be done.
This ought to be the people's motto now: MAKE HIM DO IT!
re Adam Lanza - I hadn't seen his birth date. I'd seen a mention that he was a good student, a "nerd"; also a mention that his elder brother (whose indentification he was carrying) described him as having "a personality disorder"- the brothers hadn't been in touch for 2 years.
I can't imagine an entirely sane person first shooting their mother, then 20 young children and 6 or 7 adults, though, can you, Mike? Even with adverse transits to their natal chart. There's more, there has to be.
I don't feel like investigating the natal chart of Adam Lanza - not at this stage anyway. If any passing reader would like an astrologer's take on the situation there's a good and fairly brief piece by astrologer John Townley here:
http://matrixtownley.wordpress.com/
Enjoyed the comment by NC_TOM @ commondreams...no, I don't think that will happen. The uber rich usually employ a hefty layer of protection. Obama does not make laws...he can assert pressure, but he does not make laws. Maybe Michelle Obama will take-up the cause. Lots of America would scream if Obama decreed his will to enforce gun control...authoritarianism at its finest! There are far too many people in the USA that LUV their killing machines, specially now that Obama won his second term and their perception is that this country is ready for an uprising. Also, remember that Timothy McVeigh and the Unibomber did their killing with homemade bombs...they didn't need guns.
No, I can't imagine a "sane" person doing what Adam Lanza did. However, I've long known that we are ALL crazy...it's just a matter of how much and when (throw-in a couple of complex astrology transits)!
I have a neighbor that suffers from bipolar disorder...he's fine when on meds...nasty when not. The police have been called to his home on numerous occasions, but nothing comes of it. Would I be surprised if he did something atrocious to me or others? No. He holds a full-time job and would appear "just fine" if you were to meet him at the local grocery or a random social event.
It's been my observation that we are all a bit off-skewed from the bell shaped curve of normalcy, some more than others. Don't leave any guns laying around for those that fall farther from center! Along that same line of thinking, some of the most interesting, clever, positive, altruistic, true individuals fall into that farther distance from center, too.
mike ~~ Obama couldn't make a law, granted, but he could begin a determined push towards tightening up existing laws - as a start. nobody is daft enough to expect him, or any president to re-define the 2nd Amendment, but a few neat tweaks, relevant to the 21st century noth the 18th could do a lot of good. Obama is the one who needs to set the scene, start the conversation, then many of his "celeb" backers will feel free to join in and add weight . At present these "celebs" are too afraid to upset their idol.
We have no reliable information as to Adam Lanza's mental health. There are mentions of several possibilities, and the fact that his mother stayed home "to look after him" (it is said) is curious as he was 20 years old. Most who knew him seem to agree that he was a very bright young man, a computer geek and into that strange cultish style "Goth".
The truth will come out eventually.
Thank you for your answer. I would only like to underline that the new Secretary of State is John Kerry.
And what has happened to H. Clinton is suspectful in my point of view...
I do think Middle East would return in the centre of American world Agenda of foreign relations...
Sorry for this comment (appearently) out of topic...
Chomp ~~ I'll probably do a post about the Sec. of State position at some point in the future, and will then copy your comment beneath it, but will leave it here for now.
I'm not sure Kerry has been appointed yet - nominated was the last I read yesterday, but haven't read today's news yet. He'll leave a Senate seat empty - that's a bit dangerous for the Dems I'd have thought.
Gun control is precisely the wrong solution. As Karl Denninger wrote:
And let's not kid ourselves -- that's exactly what happened in Connecticut. The teachers and staff in that school had no lawful means to resist, because they accepted (and probably even supported) the fallacious argument that laws (paper) stop bullets. They learned, too late, that this argument is and always has been false.
It takes so much to get that through to liberals who don't realize how they're being used by Obama et al precisely to allow this sort of draconian thing to go through.
Same motif every single time. People so outraged that they forget the 2nd outrage in Washington which follows it.
James Higham ~~~ You want me to take anything that man says seriously, James? Sorry - no can do.
Arming teachers? Oh - so he thinks the answer is to introduce still more weapons? Ye gods!!!
I don't know what liberals think, or realise - I'm not one, I'm a socialist, and becoming more sure of that every day.
If Obama is "using" anyone to (as I assume you imply) get some kind of gun control passed, then so far, he hasn't made much headway - even after one of his congresswomen was seriously injured, and almost killed by a gunman.
The NRA has had the administration practically bound and gagged for a long time, because the politicians and president lack the balls to oppose them.
This latest horrific event might just make a difference. I hope it can, and so should every sane person.
As an earlier commenter has said this is a polarising issue here.
I have no doubt whatsoever on which side I am, and people like Karl Denninger are the last who'd persuade me otherwise.
Interesting LIBOR conspiracy or just trash?
http://www.examiner.com/article/libor-scandal-grows-as-the-fathers-of-two-mass-murderers-were-to-testify
http://theintelhub.com/2012/10/27/cnbc-execs-children-murdered-1-day-after-cnbc-reports-43-trillion-bankster-lawsuit/
http://beforeitsnews.com/conspiracy-theories/2012/07/batman-shooting-used-to-silence-libor-expert-witness-robert-holmes-2443342.html
http://nickrokicki.wordpress.com/2012/12/17/let-the-connecticut-conspiracy-theories-begin/
mike ~~~ I'll follow the links shortly - thank you for them. I saw a mention of Libor the other day in this connection, and the two fathers of Lanza and Jolmes being involved.
I don't know what to think - yet, other than it all sounded too far fetched. Perhaps these links will help clarify.
mike ~~ I've read the links - I'm probably being extra thick here, but don't see what advantage would have been gained by what happened, supposing the coincidence of the two fathers being involved in the investigation was, in fact no coincidence.
Sometimes conspiracy theories make sense, even if only in an alternate reality kind of way. I don't see that in this case though.
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