Saturday, September 21, 2013

BANG! BANG! BANG!

 

It happened again this week - twice! - Can you believe it??? Actually come to think about it, two mass shootings in a single week should come as no surprise to anyone who's bothered to pay attention.  This is the new "normal" - if you want to call it that. In both cases the number thirteen was involved: thirteen dead at the Washington DC Navy Yard; thirteen people shot in a Chicago park. But in the Case of Chicago "thirteen" turned out to be a very lucky number. This time there were no fatalities and only one person injured critically - a three-year-old boy who was shot in the face. It appears he's going to be fine in the long run, God bless him.

Guess Who
Wayne LaPierre, the National Rifle Association's most visible spokesman, will be going on Meet The Press for a sit-down with David Gregory tomorrow. He's always loads of fun to watch. On his last appearance on that program, the hideous twit was literally foaming at the mouth. I'm not kidding! It must be a difficult thing to make one's living defending the indefensible. How this guy sleeps at night is anyone's guess. My theory is that he's simply a sociopath. Or maybe he's suffering from acute brain damage. Whatever the case, it should be an interesting hour.

In the wake of the Newtown tragedy of December 14, Wayne said something to the effect that the only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. In the case of the Washington DC Naval yard massacre you had a bad guy with a gun entering a military facility that we must presume was packed to the rafters with lots of good guys with guns. And sure enough, one of them was able to take the bad guy out. HOORAY! The only problem was the fact that he was able to murder twelve innocent people before he was put down. OUCH! So much for the delightful idiocy of Wayne LaPierre.

I'm not going to mention the Washington Navy Yard shooter by name. I'm through giving these freaks another ounce of publicity. It's obvious that he was a troubled, mentally disturbed man. According to everyone who knew him he had recently been saying that he was hearing voices that weren't there. We can debate from now till whenever what the Founding Fathers were thinking when they inserted "well-regulated militia" into the second amendment of the Constitution. Can we at least all agree that this guy wasn't what they had in mind?

You can expect at least one more mass killings before the year is out. And as more and more people are increasingly able to gain access do these dangerous, rapid-fire, people-killing machines, the carnage will only multiply. Until we wake the hell up, this is the way it's gonna be from now on, kids. Get used to it. Deal with it. Why get all bent-out-of-shape over the inevitable? I'm not. I long ago adjusted to living in a nation in ruins. You ought to, too. Don't worry. Be happy.

Giron and Morse
Don't count on the distinguished men and women inside of the House of Reprehensibles to do the right thing. If the slaughter of twenty little boys and girls won't do the trick, a bunch of dead, middle-aged contractors won't get the job done either. As I said, we need to come to terms with this nasty new reality in America. Our elected "lawmakers" are too frightened of the political power of the NRA. Two Colorado state legislators who had the courage to take on that organization were recently defeated in recall elections. Neither of them regret doing what is right for their country. Their names are Angela Giron and John Morse. Neither of them is a Republican. That didn't surprise you, did it. I didn't think it would.

NOTE TO CAROLINE KENNEDY: 

I've got two perfectly good candidates for next year's Profiles In Courage Awards that are given out every year by the Kennedy Library. That's just a friendly suggestion on my part. Do you read my blog, Caroline? Please tell me you do.

And are you ready for the punch line? Here goes: What happened in Newtown, Connecticut last year is going to happen again. As I write these words, some sick, twisted little psychopath is smoldering in the basement of his mother's home planning another schoolhouse slaughter so brutal and appalling, it will make Newtown look inconsequential by comparison. Ain't that a scream?
`
Get used to Grief
And when the next massacre of thirty, forty, fifty - or more innocent children happens it will play perfectly into the hands of the half-witted extremists who are trying to do away with public education in this doomed nation. I can just hear it now:

"See? It's just too dangerous fer y'all to send your kids to them nasty ol' public schools! Now you good folks jes leave their edjukayshun to the private sector!"

Oh, yeah. That'll be the next idiotic right wing talking point. Just you wait, Henry Higgins. 

Recently on Democracy Now, an ex-NRA member named Tom Diaz posed the question, "What kind of society are we going to be?" His heart was in the right place but he's asking the wrong question. What he should be asking is, "What kind of society have we become?" You don't need a masters degree in sociology to come up with the answer to that. It's all-too-clear that we've morphed into a society with a homicidal, cowboy mentality. "Gun Culture": it's a term you're hearing quite often these days, and there's a damned good reason for that, pardner. We just can't get enough of those iron phallic symbols. That's the reason this is so-much-more of a "man problem". I'm glad I was born a male but I'm not proud to be one. Men can be real assholes. Have you ever noticed that?

We got guns
They got guns
All God's chil'en got guns.... 

The Marx Brothers
from their 1932 film, Duck Souop  

In 2004 when George W. Bush stupidly let Bill Clinton's ban on assault weapons expire, the surge in these sort of atrocities was predicted. If you consider a "mass killing" to be five or more people we've had a jolly total of at least one-a-month since Newtown. Expect that grim number to rise each and every year from now on. As I said, this is the undeniable reality of living in the USA in the twenty-first century. This is the way it's going to be from now on. Get used to the broken bodies of dead children; come to terms with the carnage. When you bundle your little ones off to school give them a hug - and say a gentle prayer. And while you're at it, get used to living in a nation in ruins.

WAS THIS A GREAT COUNTRY OR WHAT!

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY 

SUGGESTED LISTENING:

Mercy, Mercy Me
by Marvin Gaye

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9BA6fFGMjI

A beautiful recording by one of the more stellar victims of gun violence in America in the twentieth century. 

UPDATE, 9/22/13, 11:32AM:

There were eleven more shootings in Chicago the other night. Four of them were fatalities. Please tell me you're not surprised.

27 Comments:

At 7:39 PM, Anonymous Brian's song said...

You have to admit, the most unsafe place in America today is a gun free zone!

 
At 3:33 AM, Blogger Tom Degan said...

Not quite. My house is a gun free zone. It's the safest place I know of.

 
At 2:48 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Must be nice Tom, living next door to a police station. What about the rest of us?

 
At 5:17 PM, Blogger Mozart1220 said...

Brian's Song, recently a guy who was openly carrying a gun was robbed AT GUNPOINT. And the NAVY yard was hardly, "gun free" nor was the military base that was shot up a couple years ago.

 
At 5:49 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Did Media Matters say now many of the people killed at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C were armed?

Recently a man bite a dog, doesn't happen often but it does still happen.

 
At 11:49 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Mr. Degan Sir, Apparently you believe in the Official Gov't. narrative of The Sandy hook hoax, and The Navy Yard dis information from the talking heads on TV, CNN possibly? Really? How does it feel to be duped? Did you realize the school at Sandy Hook was closed for repairs at the time? And the surveillance system was brand new sate of the art high technology? No footage has been released as of yet, and we are just supposed to believe what the medical examiner who they put on "TV" to tell us what happened, Really?"Living in a dream world" comes to mind when I read your articles. Just sayin' is all. Have a goodday mate, but don't go down with the ship. from a fellow trucker of 35 years...."gearjammer101" out.

 
At 12:28 PM, Anonymous Liberals Are Sexy said...

Tom,
Please keep up the great writing. Always interesting. You do seem to attract the wingnut fans with the "extra nutty" flavor. Some just plain sad, but some funnier than hell.

 
At 1:48 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

liberals are sexy,
I'm certain you go along with all the propaganda you swallow from all the major news media on "TV". Sad But True...just another dedicated follower of Satan.

 
At 2:13 PM, Blogger Tom Degan said...

Liberals Are Sexy:

Yeah, I do get a lot of them. I've been asked frequently why I don't delete them. How could I? They are one of the most entertaining things about this site!

Cheers!

Tom

 
At 2:32 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

and most of the shooters are DEMOCRAT LIBERALS. Almost all of them

Sick fucks like you, make people violent, sociopaths

it's the leftist way.. Take a looky here, psychotic scumbag
Ft Hood... REGISTERED DEMOCRAT
Adam Lanza. REGISTERED DEMOCRAT, HATED CHRISTIANS
COLORODO MOVIE MASSACARE: Killer worked for Obama campaign in 2008, active liberal activist!!!!
Gabby Giffords killer: Liberal Democrat

Liberal bloggers like Deagan cause their minions to go CRAZY and kill

ALMOST EVERY SHOOTER IN THE LAST 2 DECADES WAS A LIBERAL
DEMCORAT
FACTS DEAGAN
YOU DIRTY< BLOOD DRINKING PIG

 
At 2:42 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

See punk. We will NOT give up our guns. We are not who you think we are. We are not the sterotypes you liberal retards portray. 2nd amendment people are from all walks of life, some of us are even OMG gay!! If you sick freaks keep it up, there will be a CIVIL WAR We are not giving up our GUNS, WE ARE NOT GIVING UP OUR 2nd AMENDMENT. WE are in all 50 states, we are the MAJORITY, KEEP SHAKING THE TREE AND THERE WILL BE A CIVIL WAR. I PROMISE YOU. AND IT WILL BE 80% OF AMERICA vs a few retards like you. Ready to fight? You communist piggy

 
At 2:43 PM, Blogger Tom Degan said...

What did I tell you? You've gotta love these guys. You've just gotta!

 
At 3:36 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Tom, the gun debate is fair I think – though seldom very useful since both “sides” are pretty much entrenched. It is certainly a part of the problem in some way though there are many ways to view the issue. At the end of the day, less guns in the world would be a good thing. If we could magically calibrate all of society to feel they are useful for hunting and reasonable self-defense and maintain reasonable commercial oversight, I think cooler heads could prevail. As it stands, both sides caricature the other to the point where debate and solutions are hard to achieve. Anyway…

One thing that really struck me lately was the latest news about the cultural disease that is illustrated by the recent $1billion in just a few days sales of “Grand Theft Auto” and that ilk. There is no way that we are not circling the drain culturally, ethically, spiritually when that is the case. A society that celebrates mindless violence, immorality, and crime at that level is doomed. This factor plays a HUGE role in what we are seeing vis-à-vis mass shootings. There are some very foundational social factors that play into this social decay as well as gun availability – we need not lose sight of that.

 
At 9:31 PM, Anonymous Liberals Are Sexy said...

Anonymous @1:48...The only thing certain about you is that you're wrong. Oh, and that Satan thing. No such thing.

Anonymous @2:32...Your facts just aren't factual. Check somewhere except crackpot websites.

Anonymous @2:42...Are you suspended police chief Mark Kessler from Gilberton PA?

 
At 10:09 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

You liberal dems are so damn blind. Just drink your cool-aide and go find a place where you can lay down next to all your fellow obama supporters. Ok its time....drink up!

 
At 6:47 PM, Anonymous James said...

Her is part of an article on Alternet about guns.

"The annual toll from firearms in the US is running at 32,000 deaths and climbing, even though the general crime rate is on a downward path (it is 40% lower than in 1980). If this perennial slaughter doesn't qualify for intercession by the UN and all relevant NGOs, it is hard to know what does.

To absorb the scale of the mayhem, it's worth trying to guess the death toll of all the wars in American history since the War of Independence began in 1775, and follow that by estimating the number killed by firearms in the US since the day that Robert F. Kennedy was shot in 1968 by a .22 Iver-Johnson handgun, wielded by Sirhan Sirhan. The figures from Congressional Research Service, plus recent statistics from icasualties.org, tell us that from the first casualties in the battle of Lexington to recent operations in Afghanistan, the toll is 1,171,177. By contrast, the number killed by firearms, including suicides, since 1968, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the FBI, is 1,384,171.

That 212,994 more Americans lost their lives from firearms in the last 45 years than in all wars involving the US is a staggering fact, particularly when you place it in the context of the safety-conscious, "secondary smoke" obsessions that characterise so much of American life."

I am not in favor of outlawing all guns but I think it is idiotic to not tightly regulate automatic weapons and 33 round clips.
I think a lot of pro gun people are bullshitting themselves if they do not acknowledge that owning a gun is risky to them and their families.

 
At 11:05 AM, Anonymous Chuck Moore said...

James,

The crazy shooter at the Navy Yard used a Biden approved shotgun.
So how would clip/magazine capacity limitation made a difference?

You "think it is idiotic to not tightly regulate automatic weapons". Apparently Americans agree with you as the ability to own a automatic weapon is already tightly regulated. Since 1938.
Don't believe this, check out the link.

 
At 12:40 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

James –

The plight of disarmed populations has actually been far worse, so I’m not sure arguing on that basis per se is really in favor of stricter controls. Admittedly, those exterminations have been in the face of belligerent governments. But, some folks believe that an armed populace keeps (or dissuades) a government from heading down paths they shouldn’t. In almost all cases, 20th century government-led mass exterminations have been perpetrated on disarmed populations. So, the case COULD be made that full armament of the population is worth the day-to-day risk (though, I don’t personally hold to that). So, the “left” should at least give some amount of credit to that notion because it is factual and I think impactful to the argument at-hand. And, as I argue in my earlier post, I think our social decay has played a far greater role than gun availability.

 
At 9:23 PM, Anonymous James said...

Chuck, I guess I should have included the word semi in there but maybe you are right, there is no way to stop mass killings by suicidal people.
I wonder what would happen if they stopped all reporting, a total information ban on mass murders for one year. I think it would reduce the frequency of these events.

 
At 10:27 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

... To all.. I enjoyed the blog, and expression of a person posted on the web. some informative, some laughable. but I say this... our second amendment gives us the right to bare arms. nowhere does it say right to bare fire arms.My walls are lined with weapons, and eq,h hand crafted blade is well loved, crafted and beautiful. I dislike guns, they require no true skill. but stupidity is a world epidemic... and it claims more lives daily. I weep for them, and I have choicen not to breed for this reason. Keep writing, it is enjoyable Tom.

 
At 11:57 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Another successful "gun free zone" story!
Sorry for the use of the Obama Administration banded term "terrorists", should have been "man caused violence" or "tea party members" or some other liberal b.s. term used to avoid offending the members of the religion of peace. The Daily Mail didn't know any better.

"Soldiers told of the horrific torture meted out by terrorists in the Nairobi mall massacre yesterday with claims hostages were dismembered, had their eyes gouged out and were left hanging from hooks in the ceiling.

Men were said to have been castrated and had fingers removed with pliers before being blinded and hanged.

Children were found dead in the food court fridges with knives still embedded in their bodies, it was claimed."

Blame Bush, blame the NRA, blame the tea party, blame Christians.

 
At 12:01 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Read to the bottom of this article from IPT, this is the fault of Christians!

Dalia Moghaed, credited with helping President Obama draft his June 2009 Cairo speech about American relations with the Islamic world, recently downplayed attacks against Egypt’s Coptic Christians on a Facebook page.

More than 80 Coptic churches were burned by Brotherhood supporters after the Egyptian military’s crackdown last month on Muslim Brotherhood encampments in Cairo. A local branch of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party appeared to sanction violence in retaliation for the Coptic Church’s backing of the Egyptian military.

Nonetheless, Mogahed pointed the finger at the Egyptian media.

“The Egyptian media took advantage of the Copts to achieve many personal/political gains, which has angered the West,” Mogahed said in a Sept. 22 post which appeared on the Facebook page of the Egyptian Americans for Democracy and Human Rights (EADHR).

The EADHR was founded by members of the Muslim American Society (MAS), which in turn was founded as an “overt arm” of the Egyptian Brotherhood.

Mogahed isn’t the only American Islamist tied to the Obama administration to slam the Copts on social media.

In a Sept. 15 Twitter post, Mohamed Elibiary, a member of the Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Advisory Council, accused American Coptic activists of fanning hatred of Islam.

“For decade since 9/11 attack extremist American #Coptic activists have nurtured anti #Islam & anti #Muslim sentiments among AM RT wing,” Elibiary wrote.

n earlier tweets, Elibiary attacked American Copts for protesting against how their relatives in Egypt have been treated by the Islamists."

 
At 10:37 AM, Blogger De_Bill said...

I believe in the strict enforcement of the 2nd Amendment. The right to own and bear a muzzle loading black powder flintlock shall not be infringed!!

Any weapon more advanced than that is another matter, as has been amply demonstrated by precedent.

 
At 1:18 PM, Blogger Patrice Ayme said...

The gun terror is one of plutocracy's enablers. It makes We the People deeply disunited, fearful of each other, while justifying plutocrats' private armies.

 
At 10:55 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

"We have a primitive, fearful and savage culture lurking beneath our facade of civilization."

Almost as bad as Islamic terrorists from Africa? Or does Islam no longer even pretend to have a facade of civilization?

Or the young men who could be a "son, if Obama he had one" who beat and shoot and murder people? Is there a facade of civilization in the South Side of Chicago? Or central LA?

Is that what you mean?

 
At 11:24 PM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...

Is that what you mean?

(Islam, Obama, Chicago, LA)

Yes, I mean racists too. See how you ignore Obama at the military industrial complex level, but focus on him as the same race as someone you despise.

But I wouldn't forget "delusional fools who think Obama is a Marxist Muslim and believe liberals are destroying America".

Very fearful and primitive emotionally, clinging to the hope of a chance to legally shoot someone. Lots of 'em out there with you, full of hate.

 
At 7:53 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ok lets think about this all anti firearm people have armed security. They well keep their guns when the taking away the peoples firearms. Every one of them has no clue about firearms/magazines/clips/striper clips/hand grips. I really want them to start calling them clipzies so the cover anything and everything. So they can feel good when they pass laws that well not change anything. People are dangerous what they choice to use as their killing weapon well change with what is available to them. But it well not stop deaths if they a bent on doing it read what is available on the web.

 

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