Wisconsin Shooting, Neo-Nazis, and Stupidity

I haven't written about the Wisconsin shooting, because I don't blog much on the weekends, and Monday was a total blogging loss due to just. . .life. I don't know really what I can say about the shooting, other than to express a couple of observations.   [Story continues below]



- Again, though gun rights advocates always say that gun laws only keep guns out of law-abiding citizens hands, the shooter had a legal weapon.
- Again, it's a case of guns don't kill people, bullets kill people; ie, the ability to fire a lot of bullets in a short period of time.
- This man was apparently stupid, confusing any turban-wearer with his dreaded Muslims.
- This man was also a neo-Nazi, apparently, and/or white supremecist (forgive me for not knowing if there's a difference). One thing about these people is that very few will openly claim them. I'd be inclined to call his positions "extreme right wing," but I doubt right-wingers see it that way.
- This shit happens too often.
- When people started making drugs from Sudafed, it was regulated. When some jackass tried to blow up a plane with a shoe bomb, we got regulations that make us take our shoes off at the airport. When Timothy McVeigh blew up a building with fertilizer, they regulated fertilizer. I'm not saying that all of these regulations are done well, or are 100% necessary. . .but they happened, and we're allowed to discuss them, and probably can lobby to tweak them. Why are gun/ammunition control laws off the table?

That's all I've got right now.

[Excerpt]

Military, music marked temple suspect's path to Wisconsin

Investigators spent Monday trying to figure out what led 40-year-old Wade Michael Page from repairing missiles for the Army to a Sikh temple in suburban Milwaukee, where he was killed by police at the end of a Sunday morning rampage. . .

Read more at: CNN

Muslim Cab Driver Stabbed & Cut, Probable Hate Crime

Okay, this anti-Muslim crap is getting out of hand. I'm agnostic, practically anti-religion (any religion), and even I can see this is getting nuts.  Maybe this dude is just bonkers, but it sounds like more than that. And I'm particularly squicked out that this guy looks so ordinary, so eerily like. . .well, me. The way he's dressed, the way he looks. Very me. And very weird.

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Barack Obama, Secret Muslim???

Image from Metro.Co.UK

Recently, a poll was released, showing that more and more Americans believe that President Barack Obama is a Muslim. A larger percentage "doesn't know" what religion the President is. This strikes me as profoundly stupid after all of the ginned up FOX "News" controversy about Obama spending "20 years" in the church of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright!

It is also an irrelevant question.  Sure, if Obama weren't really Christian, it would qualify as a "lie," since he's called himself one on many occasions. But it would be a lie that is made by many every day, even probably a few former Presidents. What do I mean by that? Only that I suspect the current President is only nominally a Christian, probably more a skeptic, maybe even an agnostic or atheist. I have no proof, and I don't even really care.  Being a Christian is not a requirement for holding office. But it is very nearly an unwritten requirement for getting elected.

But this whole "Obama is a Muslim" thing  goes deeper than what his religion really is. It's yet another fear mongering, hate-baiting, divisionist tactic.  It's a hair's breadth from the birthers, who believe that Obama was born in Kenya (or Indonesia, or Canada, or the Pacific ocean, or. . .), and thus is not a natural born citizen and thus unable to legally be President of the United States.  You can bet that if Obama was a blond haired, blue eyed white guy, none of these sorts of conspiracy theories would exist.

Daily Show: FOX "News" and the Muslim World

When so many people were up in arms over a mosque being built 2-1/2 blocks from "Ground Zero," I was confused. I'm not religious at all, and find mosques no more or less offensive than I find churches or synogogues.  I'm indifferent toward them, unless they try to impose the beliefs that should remain within their walls into government and law. Then I start to get pissed off. But conservatives (by and large) and entities like FOX "News" are inconsistent in their objections to religious buildings and even religious intrusion into law. Muslim? Evil! Christianity? Why, we're a Christian nation!  Jewish? Ummmm, well, we'll say we're "Judeo-Christian" since we need Israel to get obliterated when Jeebus gets back! 

Jon Stewart had a great bit about this phenomenon last night, skewering FOX "News," and even ABC News' Dianne Sawyer. . .

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Random Unhinged Anti-Health Care Reform Protesters

Sheesh. "God will take care of health care." "The U.S.S. Constitution." Referring to the Constitution as a book. Communism. Socialism. Marxism. Abortion. Obama's a Muslim. Hitler.

These people are really all over the place. And to claim that the Constitution does not provide for health care reform, when it clearly states "support the general welfare," is just goofy. I used to be impressed (and depressed) about how the GOP and the party faithful used to be unified, and lock-step on message. Now I'm just exasperated by this--hopefully not literal--shotgun approach.

More Obama Urban Legend Madness

Photo from source, AOL News

Today I was listening to The Randi Rhodes Show on Air America Radio, which was being guest hosted by Sam Seder while Randi's away. Sam loves to engage right-wing callers, listen to them tell their story (usually skillfully setting up their answers), and then he shoots down their arguments one by one. Sometimes this leads to the befuddlement of the caller, sometimes they concede that they were wrong, and sometimes, they act like Peggy.

Peggy was a caller from Ohio, who has bought, hook line and sinker, the entire boatload of lies, half-truths and innuendo about Barack Obama's heritage and patriotism. The amusing (and simultaneously scary) thing about Peggy was that while she believed it all, she had most of the stuff wrong. She had the wrong stuff wrong! She thought he was unpatriotic about the flag pin thing, said he "refused" to say the Pledge of Allegiance, and "refused" to put his hand over his heart. Peggy was so verklempt, she had a pit in her stomach, and actually thought Barack Obama was a covert agent of. . .wait for it. . .al-Qaeda!

The problem is, most of this stuff is partially wrong or flat-out wrong. Yes, Obama was at an event where he didn't put his hand on his heart during The National Anthem, NOT the Pledge of Allegiance. And he didn't "refuse," he just didn't do it, that one time. He doesn't wear a flag pin, but it's not out of anti-patriotism, and he's explained why, many times. Suffice it to say that in his mind, the cute little flag brooches are akin to bumper stickers or T-shirts, and I agree. There's much more, and all of it its mind-numbingly stupid.

The scariest part is that Peggy did not sound stupid. She sounded very uninformed, and was tragically gullible, but not necessarily stupid. So, my question is. . .how much of America is like Peggy?

Snopes.com, as I've mentioned in the past, is a go-to source for anything that might be a hoax or urban legend, and I highly recommend it in this case. Upon visiting today, I found out that among their thousands of catalogued stories, the Barack Obama hoaxes are #1 with a bullet. If you believe any of the crap floating out there (or your annoying friends/family do), go there now, and learn the truth:

Snopes.com Barack Obama Legends Page

[Excerpt]

Obama Fights False Links to Islam

The Democratic presidential front-runner and his campaign reacted strongly this week when a photo of him in Kenyan tribal garb began spreading on the Internet. And the praise he received Sunday from Minister Louis Farrakhan, leader of the black Muslim group Nation of Islam, prompted pointed questions during Tuesday night's presidential debate and in a private meeting over the weekend with Jewish leaders in Cleveland, Ohio. . .

Read more at: AOL News