I don't know how much longer the terrible events in Aurora, Colorado will be in the news. Sometimes these mass shootings fade from the news cycle quickly, sometimes they linger for a long time. But we never really seem to have any meaningful movement on doing something about it. Many gun fetishistsnuts advocates will say nothing can be done, without taking away their "freedoms." Most of the rest of us either sadly shrug our shoulders, or futilely rail about it for a few days. It is the rare elected official who will come out with anything that sounds remotely "anti-gun."
I'm not anti-gun. But I don't think it's unreasonable to consider and discus sensible efforts to curtail the availability of weapons that can kill or wound six dozen people in a minute or two. I don't think that's a bad place to draw the line. Anyway, enough from me. Jason Alexander (George Costanza of Seinfeld) wrote a very, very good piece on this subject, the day after the shootings. It's really good, and captures my thoughts better than I could ever put them. Alexander--whatever you think of him--is a well spoken and smart guy, and this is worth a read.
[Excerpt]
Jason Alexander’s amazing gun rant
. . .This morning, I made a comment about how I do not understand people who support public ownership of assault style weapons like the AR-15 used in the Colorado massacre. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AR-15
That comment, has of course, inspired a lot of feedback. There have been many tweets of agreement and sympathy but many, many more that have been challenging at the least, hostile and vitriolic at the worst. . .
After a big shooting tragedy, we can be sure we'll hear these things:
1. If there were more people with concealed handguns, people would have been saved.
2. Gun control laws only keep guns out of law-abiding citizens' hands.
3.Any restriction or regulation of guns is an infringement on our freedom.
4. Guns don't kill people, people kill people.
5. There's nothing we can do to prevent these tragedies.
6. Now is not the time to talk about gun control/"play politics"
The first one is stupid, just stupid. The second assumes all crazy shooters would know where to get illegal guns, and ignores that most of these guys got their guns legally. Number three ignores that there are restrictions and regulations on all of the bill of rights. Freedom of speech has restrictions. The fourth one would be far more accurate if it were phrased, "Guns don't kill people, bullets kill people." It's tired. Number five sure didn't apply after 9/11, did it? And the last one? Mitt Romney just used that one, and it ignores that the best time to address this issue is after a big tragedy, when it's fresh in peoples' minds, and something might actually get done.
[Excerpt]
Romney: Not The Right Time To Talk About Gun Control Mitt Romney on Monday dismissed calls for more stringent restrictions on the Internet sale of ammunition and semi-assault weapons in the wake of the Aurora, Colo., shooting tragedy, arguing that it is a time to come together and help communities in need. . .
Every time I type Chick-fil-A, I'm sure I've typed something wrong. I mean, if you're going to go nuts with hyphens, why not go for "Chik?" And what's with the capitalization? It's just stupid. I reminds me of that old song, Dazzy Duks which was trying to be cute by spelling "Daisy Dukes" incorrectly, and wound up looking like it rhymed with "snazzy sucks" instead. Which shows you how my brain works.
So, we'll add the stupid name to the reasons to boycott Chick-fil-A. That's in addition to not being open on Sundays (which is pious baloney), and the fact that they're publicly anti-gay. Good enough for me (plus we don't have any in Las Vegas or Nevada, so it's easy too!). But it's not just me. The dude named Cathy who owns the joint has gathered quite a number of boycotters, and only managed to pick up. . .what. . .Mike Huckabee? How does that compare to The Muppets?
[Excerpt]
Muppets Abandon Chick-fil-A Because Of Its Anti-Gay Policies
Gonzo doesn’t have to worry about Camilla and his other chickens anymore, because the Muppets are officially going to be eating less chicken. In a Facebook note posted Friday evening, The Jim Henson Company, which currently offers toys in Chick-fil-A kids’ meals, announced that will no longer partner with the fast food chain on any future endeavors because of its anti-gay policies. . .
Sorry for the lack of new posts. Alcohol + pool party + lots of Las Vegas sunshine = in bed by 8:15pm! On the bright side, I got lots of sleep, and am energized for the week. But alas, there were no new posts for the week. I'll be sure to get something up later today. In the meantime, happy Monday!
Henry Cavill looks good, no doubt. But I'm hoping the costume is an early prototype. Image from JustJared.
DC Comics has just released The Dark Knight Rises, apparently the last Batman movie we're likely to get for a long time. The movie--despite the tragic opening night fiasco in Aurora,Colorado--is likely to do very, very well. Maybe not The Avengers well, but close. And that's a darn sight better than most of DC Comics' movie adaptations compared to Marvel's.
And for life-long DC fans like me, who actually dug Green Lantern and yes, Superman Returns, it's about time. But, if you think it's weird that I liked those movies, I've also been underwhelmed by Christopher Nolan's modern day Batman series. The second one with the late Heath Ledger as the Joker? Meh. I know everyone liked it, but to me, it was just oversold or something. But then, I wasn't much of a fan of the Tim Burton/Joel Schumacher Batman series either. Well, I liked the Val Kilmer one.
So, while I don't think it was necessary to reboot Superman only six years after the last one, I am nonetheless excited about Man of Steel. Supes has always been one of my favorites, and it would be sweet if DC finally hit on a non-Batman hero, one that everyone likes, not just me. The overdone "S" shield in this promo is a little troublesome. I am a graphic artist as an adult, and that thing is just too much. But I'll be there. Maybe not on opening night though. . .
I knew people would go there. My friend (and rival blogger from the other side of the aisle) Dan at LasVegasBadger knew people would go there. And so they have. Gun rights advocates (or gun fetishists, as I like to say) are all over the interwebs, talk radio, and doubtless FOX "News," loundly proclaiming that if they had been there, they'd have stopped it, by cracky! They'd have pulled out their concealed weapon, and popped that wacko before he did so much damage.
I for one am horrified by the thought. It would be bad enough finding myself in a situation like what happened Thursday night in Aurora, Colorado. The terror of an event like that probably can't really be imagined if you haven't been there. But you know what? The Dirty Harry or Die Hard imaginings of these vocal gun nuts is primarily imagination. It's quite simply delusional. And the following writeup from Wonkette--a snarky, largely humorous site--has one of the best takes I've seen on the subject. From a person who was in a shooting incident. Read it, please, particularly if you disagree with me.
Image from Wonkette.
[Excerpt]
Notes From The Periphery Of A Shooting: A Wonkette Moment Of Tenderness
You don’t have to have witnessed a random shooting in a public place to question whether an armed bystander could have stopped the shooter, but it helps. On the morning of May 21, 1998, on the way to a movie matinee, I stopped by a Tucson post office to send a package of comic books (“The Maxx”) to be autographed by the artist/writer Sam Kieth. I take my nerding seriously. . .
Whenever there is a mass shooting in America (and it is far too often), gun fetishists immediately launch into a pre-emptive defense, knowing full well that some people are going to call for something to be done regarding gun laws. They often seem more concerned with that, then about the victims of yet another tragedy. And always, people say "now is not the time" to discuss such things.
Nonsense. Now is the best time to discuss such things. When it is fresh in peoples' minds. When it is not a hypothetical, but a reality. I've said here many times that I'm basically agnostic about guns and gun laws. But I am swayed by calls for sensible gun control laws. Things like competency tests and training. Things like making sure a buyer is not batshit crazy. Things like restricting the availability of guns with the capability of inflicting massive casualties in short periods of time. This guy shot 70 people! It's not crazy to want to make it harder for a madman to kill a bunch of people in a few minutes. What do gun nuts think is coming a zombie apocalypse?
Ron Reagan was filling in for Chris Matthews on Hardball on Friday, and in the "Let Me Finish. . ." segment, gave a brilliant essay on the subject. I was glad to see him use the same phrase I do (gun fetish), and that he also considers himself gun agnostic for the most part. And that he likes tweaking the NRA. I don't know why the right dislikes Ron Reagan so much either. I mean to them, he's practically the son of God, right?
For all of the importance and focus we put on terrorism from without, there seems to be little we can do about it from within. And when it comes to domestic terrorism, there is little more effective than a mass shooting. They seem to happen with disturbing regularity in this country. And without a seismic shift in public opinion, they're going to keep happening.
I'm usually ambivalent when it comes to guns, neither fetishising them as many on the right, nor being energized against them like. . .well, I'm not sure these days who is rabidly against guns. When it comes to tragic events like this, the gun nuts well get over-the-top defensive, and insist that if only more people were armed*, this wouldn't have happened. And for the most part, anyone who wants to be critical of guns or gun rights will soft-peddle what they want to say for fear of being branded anti-gun. [Story continues below]
I'm not sure how we got here, with this issue being so radioactive. Yes, we have a second amendment, but it doesn't say, "An unregulated gun collection, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear unlimited Arms without restriction or oversight, shall not be infringed." It says, "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." The first part is often left out, of course. And the word "infringe" is rather fuzzy and imprecise. It's surprising that it has become so ironclad. Also, you'd think the word "arms" could be defined to exclude weapons of mass destruction. It already is, in that you can't have a nuclear weapon, or a tank, or a dirty bomb.
This story is new, and we may learn some uncomfortable details--and in the meantime may hear some inaccurate ones--after the facts come in. The shooter could be right-wing, left-wing or completely politically unaffiliated. There may have been laws or regulations that could've helped prevent this, or it may be that no one could have seen it coming. I have to wonder though, why it is impossible to limit--or at least impede--just anyone from acquiring weapons capable of mowing down a crowd.
[Excerpt]
12 shot dead at 'Dark Knight Rises' screening in Aurora, Colorado
Twelve people were killed and at least 50 others wounded early Friday
when a gunman wearing a bullet-proof vest opened fire during a midnight
screening of the latest Batman movie near Denver, authorities and
witnesses said. . .
* The "more guns" argument bugs me a lot. It belies a rather unrealistic mindset, where life is like a movie, and every "good" gun owner is John McClane from Die Hard. I'm not sure the reality would play out like an action movie.
I actually had a blog post all written, pictures, pull quotes, the works. My blogger software ate it. So, I got peeved and went off to do other things. That's why the blog is light at the moment! So, here is the first of two Rocky Mountain Mike song parodies! This one is about Mrs. Romney's unfortunate tendency to refer to we plebeians as "you people."
It is fortunate that in what is often a FOX "News"/Rush Limbaugh-led media, that the "birther" conspiracy theory(s) haven't gone completely mainstream. Sure, it's big enough that many people know what it is about. But it is the rare individual who takes any of it seriously.
Image from Huffington Post
The birthers threatened to break through on Tuesday, when Arizona's batshit crazy Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his anachronistically named "Cold Case Posse" had a big press conference. Sheriff Joe pronounced Barack Obama's long-form birth certificate (actually the PDF scan of it) a forgery. He had the alleged testimony of a 95-year-old hospital worker, and some 50-year-old penciled notations. And that was really about it. One of those notations was a "9" written in the margin. Arpaio used this to declare the document a forgery. But he and his posse lied about what the 9 meant. Surprise, surprise!
[Excerpt]
Code “9”: the Cold Case Posse’s big lie
I have debunked so much demonstrably false “birther evidence” that I sometimes lose perspective about levels of “bunk” and levels of “demonstrable.” Based on the reactions of others, I may have done something last year that applies to something high on the “bunk” scale today as well as high on the “demonstrable” scale amounting to what Joe Biden might call a BFD, and the smoking gun showing the Cold Case Posse fabricated evidence and lied. . .
The State of Hawaii has repeatedly confirmed the indisputable evidence of President Obama’s birth in Hawaii. An exhaustive accounting of this is provided on the State Department of Health (DOH) website (http://hawaii.gov/health/vital-records/obama.html). When this issue last arose in May, the Washington Post noted that “the Hawaii Department of Health has released both the short and long forms of the president’s birth certificate; and that all this information, along with clear-as-a-bell explanations, is available to the public online. . .”
Who is Rush Limbaugh, really? He's a college dropout and former DJ. He lucked into finding a talent for talk radio. He's entertaining, and sharp at what he does. But he's no kind of expert on anything. His alleged greatness is in his presentation style, not his knowledge base. And if his most recent screw up is any indication, he does very little show prep. There was a scene in Aaron Sorkin's The Newsroom, where Jeff Daniels' news anchor character is winging it, and in the teleprompter it says *VAMP.* I figure that's what Rush thought he'd do with The Dark Night Rises story hook.
Rush had done enough research to know that there was a new Batman movie, that it was highly anticipated, and that it featured a nasty villain named "Bane." It's all Rush needed to stir up some shit, and he probably just figured he could vamp from there. But what Rush didn't realize--and what a huge percent of the population knows--is that Bane has been around as a character in the comics for almost 20 years. And it isn't like he was a minor character either, he broke Batman's back, paralyzing him. It was a media event, and it's where I first heard the character's name.
Rush took the Bane name, conflated it with Mitt Romney's Bain Capital, and cobbled together a half-baked conspiracy theory. Out of whole cloth. And everyone made fun of Rush, and so he had egg on his face. Turns out that Rush has an easy way to deal with embarrassment: pretend it never happened! He's on tape. Millions heard him say it. He denies it.
The whole story shouldn't matter. Rush Limbaugh is nothing but a radio host. He doesn't have special powers or even special insight or knowledge. He's developed an outsized persona, built mostly of ego and fawning fans. And the sad, scary thing is, the now firmly hard-right Republican party looks to Rush for their talking points. John Sununu was spewing Rush's rap almost verbatim the other day. And you know that some of the more gullible listeners believed the Bane/Bain connection. At least for a little while. And some will always believe it.
In several posts, I've lamented the many and varied web of conspiracy theories known collectively as "birtherism." Birthers all believe that for one reason or another, President Barack Hussein!!! Obama is ineligible to hold office. Some believe Obama is a criminal who has knowingly lied his way into office, knowing full well that he isn't a "natural born citizen." Others claim no such charges, and simply assert that he's invalid by reason of a technicality.
What is in the water in Arizona? Image from Gawker.
When Obama released his "long form" birth certificate, he'd finally met the condition set out by nearly every birther of every stripe: "produce the certificate, and this will all go away." Needless to say--after the less crazy ones defected--the remaining birthers declared the long form to be a forgery. They did extensive analysis (on YouTube, so it must be true) on the document. No, wait, hold the phone. . .they did extensive analysis on the PDF scan of the document. Which is pointless, stupid and to the extent they've gone on this thing, absolutely batshit insane.
I covered and debunked the analysis in a lengthy post (with a far lengthier argument with birthers in the comments section) over a year ago. And since then, it's safe to bet on two things: a) more former birthers have jumped ship, and b) the remaining ones are even more entrenched.
Some birthers go so far as to say that old pictures like this one are all forgeries, and doubt the parentage of the President, both his father and his mother. Ca-RAY-zee! Image from USAToday.
Since the far right-wing essentially ate the entire Republican Party, fringe beliefs have taken center stage, and Birtherism is one of those things. Several mainstream elected officials have pandered to their lunatic base by dog-whistling to them. Donald Trump has come right out and espoused (badly parsed) birther talking points. He lied and said he had investigators in Hawaii uncovering all kinds of things. But we know he lied because he eventually dropped it.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio--one of several batshit crazy right-wing heroes--did not drop it. And he actually did send investigators to Hawaii. He even held a (invitation only!) press conference about his latest "findings" on Tuesday afternoon. And since Obama is now in federal prison, and Joe Biden installed as President, you can see that it worked! Or not.
One more thing. Every single birther nugget has been debunked, and can be found at ObamaConspiracy. I highly recommend the site if you've ever even entertained a portion of this nuttiness.
[Excerpt]
Joe Arpaio Holds Press Conference to Let America Know He’s Still a Wingnut
Good news, birthers — Joe Arpaio is sure President Obama's birth certificate is fradulent.
Sheriff Joe held a press conference this evening to continue spouting
off about his conspiracy theory, complete with a team of "experts" to
verify his claims. . .
Okay, so there's a fast food company with a name so precious and cute that I had to look it up three times to make sure I'd spelled and hyphenated it correctly. They've got a clever, funny advertising campaign. And it's run by a dude named Cathy. Sounds gay to me, but for some reason, the company--Chick-fil-A--is being run on "Biblical" principles* by said Mr. Cathy.
I don't eat at fast food restaurants very often, and even if I wanted to there are none of Mr. Cathy's reconstituted chicken parts eateries in Las Vegas nor in the rest of Nevada. But I'll be sure to add Chick-fil-A to my mental Rolodex (though I can't promise I'll remember the spelling), and I will be sure to never spend a thin dime there, until one of the one-day-dearly-departed Mr. Cathy's gay relatives inherits the place, and turns it into the next Hamburger Mary's.
[Excerpt]
It's Official: Chick-fil-A COO Dan Cathy Comes Out as Antigay
Dan Cathy, the chief operating officer of Chick-fil-A, said there is no denying that his company opposes marriage equality. . .
* Just a side note to Mr. Cathy: Jesus never said a thing against gay people, or gay marriage. And by the way, many, many potential customers are either not Christians, or don't follow Mr. Cathy's particular interpretation. But, if he doesn't mind losing business, I guess it ain't my problem.
As is usually the case when The Daily Show with Jon Stewart goes on vacation, big news happens while they're away. And that always means a dynamite first segment on the Monday when they return. Stewart's take on Mitt Romney's Bain Capital problem is spot on and very funny.
