Government Shitdown

I don't have it in me to rant much about this farce of a government shutdown/threat of U.S. Debt default hootenanny going on at the present time. Other than to say that there is this weird idea floating around at the time of writing that this shutdown is the fault of both parties. Now, I certainly don't like purporting that the Dumocrats are sweet, blameless, children caught in the crossfire of a war betwixt the Republicans and tea party enthusiasts but I DO believe they had next to nothing to do with actually going forward with this shutdown.

Meanwhile conservative friends post things like this:

So, basically Obama is a "baby" for not throwing up his hands and essentially caving in to insane people who have chosen to drop to the floor of congress and have a fit and close up shop until they get their way? An entire wing of the government has taken the rest hostage and shut it all down so that they can make some sort of ill defined point about stupid legislation? Legislation that has been in the hopper for several years, debated, voted on ad naseum AND constitutionally verified by their own cockamamie, conservative, supreme court...but it's up to Obama to "do his job" and "quit being a baby?!" The whole shut down is all his fault? This from the side that literally took their ball and went home, stamping their feet and essentially perpetrating a fraud on the American people with their deeply unpopular, unsupported, and essentially unwanted  motherfucking stupid bullshit.

There is no reasoning with insanity. No constructive, collaborative decision making and no fair and balanced governing. There is no progress to be made in this culture of hate and seriously bipolar, stubborn, minority control. Yes, this system is entirely broken and those of us on the fences and fringes are exactly right when we say it's time to vote them all out. Trouble is we put these clowns in and the only other people willing to run for office these days are more clowns. Corporate types, lawyers and other assorted rich narcissist who excel at fundraising and hobnobbing with other, more rich, assholes who cling to decisive, self-interested, horseshit to benefit other extremely rich assholes. It's a god damn clown car snake eating it's own clown car snake tail and there simply seems to be nothing at all anyone can do about it because "Average honest Joe or Jane" will never have the money, time, energy, fundraising ability to ever, ever fairly compete in any sort of meaningful election that would or could make some sort of difference.

You know what? Fuck it. Just keep it shut down and let's default and see what happens. Maybe the resulting cluster-fuck will be the "thing" we need...Though surely this is all, in the end, just idiot Republicans executing another sure to fail election winning strategy.

What good will "punishing" Syria do?

I simply don't get it...Why bother bombing a country torn asunder already by years of civil war? What will that accomplish? Yes, that conflict is terrible and yes the use of Chemical weapons is abhorrent but what purpose would lobbing a bunch of cruise missiles, drone strikes and presumably smart bombs possibly serve? In what world would the Assad regime suddenly learn some sort of incalculable "lesson?" I obviously cannot condone anything happening in Syria but who gives a fuck what I think, or anyone thinks, in this country. Sure, if there was somehow some way that this Syrian civil war directly threatened us then I suppose it's something to consider but getting mired in yet another pointless conflict in the middle east seems ridiculous at this stage in the game.

Not that any of our previous, endless conflicts of this millennium had any real point but you'd think we would have learned by now. Expensive, messy, and stupid and just another of the billions of reasons that our government is an entity that functions of it's own accord and has little to nothing to do with the "American people" anymore. Sure, they do press conferences and play the charade that we are all somehow in this together but it gets more and more obvious that we are just an endless, confused rabble that is at best poorly represented by an unworkable, conflicted "congress" of rich people who could give a shit what you or I think, want, need...Fuck it...Let's Frack some shit, bomb some Syrians because, whatever, fuck them.

Seriously, what will killing more people in a place filled with death accomplish or mean? Now that Britain has backed down the U.S. is now left alone holding it's dick and currently Congress is skeptical and IF Obama does bomb Syria then he's a war mongering asshat who should be impeached. Dollars to donuts says IF he does the right thing, and backs down and leaves Syria to kill themselves as they have been, then Obama will probably be labeled a coward with no convictions or some such bullshit. Which, I fear, is a real shitty thing to think that we now have to pointlessly murder a bunch of Syrians from the air because the alternative would mean "looking weak politically." Which is just freaking mental, "Gotta save face and do what I say and mean what I mean!" *thousands of Syrians randomly killed by U.S. rockets and bombs, only thing that changes is that shit is somehow even worse for Syria*

Makes me sick.

It's 2nd term scandal season!

One thing I had failed to expect of the Obama term II was how modern politics seem to focus on the scandals as soon as possible during the second term. During Bush's fifth year it seemed to be one thing after another after another then Katrina happened, and his dopey, non-response and it seemed his legacy was permanently cemented in shit. And so it appears it shall be for Obama. At first we had a plague of micro-scandals that are mostly bullshit (Benghazi in particular) but then came the NSA leak. (Right guys? Assuming this stupid blog has been sucked up into my meta-data file, yes?)

Like many people my biggest gripe with Obama has continued to be the notion that he continued all the Patriot Act, George W. Bush over-reach and spying that he initially claimed he wouldn't do prior to becoming President. And that totally fucking sucks. Apparently, once he got in he then saw the value, and lets play along, the scary boogey-man-ness that made it impossible to dial down the greatest intrusion in our (what is now clearly imagined) rights to privacy. So, we have illegal American citizen assassinations, total data/phone/internet monitoring and also an aggressive need to offensively cyber attack whomever we want with our secret technological terror. It's beyond science fiction and it's totally not what I pretended to hope for when I first voted for Obama. I mean, it's not just him BUT now that this extreme invasion of technology and abuse of executive power is now only further cemented for years to come. I have a hard time believing that some benign, non-egotistical human being who actually believes in America and it's people will ever get this job then successfully roll this whole program backwards. It seems like we have already lost that hypothetical battle and fuck it anyways...Game of Thrones is on!

Seriously, I am as guilty as anyone of just tuning it all out with my hands in the air since there is nothing I can do outside of very occasionally posting pointless un-read blogs (well, almost unread, right NSA guy/girl reading this?) and that is what makes this all so much more sad. I would literally lose my mind if I even attempted to go down any road that could, even in the most micro way, affect any sort of change that could in any way restore the free, private America we all like to imagine we once had. The fourth amendment has been rolled back, the second won't help you against a cyber powered robot drone army. So, I have no choice but to enjoy my TVs, my movies and other entertainments and hopefully live my life as best I can within these imposed controls. All in the name of my "safety."

It's just all too bad, we could do better. Yes, the world is more a dark and terrible place of poverty and horror beyond most of our fat, over privileged, American's imaginations. But gawd dammit, we could all do better at this life thing...It's just too damn bad.

They actually brought him in alive

So, the massive and unprecedented manhunt has ended when they found him hiding inside of someone's  boat in a backyard, injured and who the fuck knows. Hopefully he is kept alive and they are able to glean some answers. I wonder if he will end up an enemy combatant and get locked up in a brig on some ship somewhere in the middle of the ocean?

There have been seriously worse things to happen to this country but this one being in the public as it was and so thoroughly documented just brought with it a new level of surreal. The instant newsification I mentioned in the last post and the fact that the whole thing, more or less, was wrapped up inside of a week is impressive. So, so many surreal images from this week but I think the one that may burn into my mind could be this one:

"Suspect 2" Dzhokar Tsarnaev passing by "his allegedly" dropped bomb while his about to be victims look on...Just fucking insanely surreal that we have reached a day and age where everything is captured on some camera somewhere. The only thing left will be the advent of civilian drones buzzing all around everywhere and everyone. The notion of privacy is rapidly becoming a quaint memory but all the same is a useful tool for these sorts of events. All the same, I hope they hang this image in Dzhokar's cell.

Frankly, I am surprised there haven't been more of these kind of attacks as I mentioned the day of the bombing this shit is pretty regular in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kenya, Israel and many, many other countries. An important distinction though is that we are willing to shut down one of our largest metropolitan areas in the country completely and hunt you down if you blow shit up like that.

Deadspin has been pretty good at covering this whole shit show, kind of above and beyond for a sports blog, they put out a great collection of some of the images from the last couple of days as seen here:

To gun nuts who like to say they need their guns to overthrow the government if things go south...You ain't got enough guns to contend with something like this. This was what a police state would look like. not to pick on the police and say they shouldn't have done what they did...Looking at these kinds of images it reads as an even bigger miracle that they brought Dzhokar in alive, shot, but alive. This is heavy duty shit and for two dudes aged 26 7 19. Granted those "dudes" decided to have a firefight and throw bombs at the cops so one can't be too judgmental. 

Overall, aside from whatever endless speculation on the whys and all the motivation oriented questions this incident is, more or less, over. It was surreal, it was weird, and as mentioned in the previous post a main event for a really fucked up week in April. Let's all have a nice weekend now, eh?

It's April, time for a tragedy!

Now, it's certainly not every April of every year that some tremendous, news-media-orgy-style, tragedy happens nor is it obviously exclusively April when things like the Boston Marathon bombing goes down. But it sure seems like the third week of April is a fairly common time for massive, nation wide, nightmares to occur:

• Waco Siege ended April 19, 1993
• Oklahoma City Bombing, April 19, 1995
• Columbine Massacre April 20, 1999
• Virginia Tech Massacre, April 16, 2007
• Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig explodes, April 20, 2010
• Boston Marathon Bombing, April 15, 2013

Also, Hitler was born on April 20, 1889 and in 1939 Germany made April 20 a national holiday celebrating his birth! Plus Tax day in the U.S. is always April 15 and in the "stoner counterculture" 420 is slang for the appropriate time to get high thus April 20th is oft cited as a holiday for pot heads. So, clearly THIS MEANS SOMETHING!

How could this random spattering of tragedies (that also happen to have been massive media events) just happen to occur on or around Hitler's birthday? I also have a former, ornery co-worker who's birthday was 4/20...So, it can't be a coincidence it has to be fate as deemed upon our tragic mortal coil as penance for all of human transgressions and sinful behavior. IT IS! IT TOTALLY IS!?!?

But seriously, it truly is a coincidence because we have naturally had massive, media-fueled travesties at all times of the year and they happen when they happen. The question I am really asking, during this Boston Marathon bombing week (that also happened to include record heavy rains & flooding in the Chicago region, a massive fertilizer plant exploding in Texas, and a ricin poisoned letter being mailed to the President and a Mississippi senator allegedly from a disgruntled Elvis impersonator) is are things getting worse these days or does it just seem like it because of our insane, 24 hour, internet fueled media?

I think it's the media and the never ending negativity forever perpetrated by the insatiable internet monster. One of which I am also quite guilty of as I am practically drowning in social media these days myself. IN fact, an apropos Tweet I saw just a little while ago, from @theTweetofGod, sums up the insanity quite well:

Behold the dawn of the 24-second news cycle.
— God (@TheTweetOfGod) April 19, 2013

As I write this post the media is frantically speculating all about "suspect 2" as he has not been caught or killed at the moment. He's  Chechnyan, is he or isn't he a Muslim.  He's trained or not trained, he's a lost soul who, along with his brother, are like the Columbine guys, or not...And, if you choose to watch, the news is just spiraling around in an information maelstrom, a virtual tornado of empty rhetoric, anger and confusion fueled by endless speculation and worry. And the Boston story is just  the biggest one of several "BREAKING NEWS" threads spinning and spinning and spinning. In the end, besides my belief that climate change is making the weather weird, the only thing that is different is the media amplification resulting in the perception that things are somehow worse than they were in the proverbial, undefinable, really just an abstract concept of "BEFORE."

And this post, and really this blog in general, does nothing but add a teeny, tiny, micro drop into the media shit-storm of misinformation and opinionated bullshit. All the same, though, it's been a long week.

Hang in there Boston.

I haven't felt the need to post on this site lately. Been busy doing other things, other blogs, but it's always the tragedies that bring me back in...No words for this yet:

America like Israel.

 News frenzy in full swing.

Someone else pointed this out today as well:

Insurgents in Iraq deployed a series of car bombs as part of highly co-ordinated attacks that cut across a wide swath of the country today, killing at least 55 on the deadliest day in nearly a month.

So, it's a pretty regular thing in many parts of the world. No idea who or why at this point in time, have a weird gut feeling that it'll turn out domestic but who knows. Considering the amount of video coverage in that area I imagine it will come out sooner than later.  Ugly shit, could have been way worse and, as so many have pointed out today, more people involved in helping those hurt than those involved in executing the hurting.

I saw "Zero Dark Thirty" so did I endorse torture?

And I didn't walk out of it thinking that torture works. In between all the gun nut stories this week I have come across several posts, many by favored liberal voices, discussing the film Zero Dark Thirty and the notion that it promotes or endorses torture. Primarily because it appears that one piece of the puzzle leading up to the finding and assassination of Osama bin Laden is obtained by torture early on in the film. So, somehow that makes this movie questionable and it seems that it has been decided that the director Kathryn Bigelow is said to have been snubbed for a best director Oscar nomination as a result. The controversy is apparently based in the idea that the movie "endorses" the war on terror and though it's merely a movie that is about things that actually happened I guess it was wrong to not include seminal scenes of liberal bloggers wagging their fingers at whatever parts they disagree with, I guess.

I am not really sure. Now, I am not pro-torture and those scenes in this excellent film are horrendous. I am not really for most of what this country did post 9/11 nor did I walk out of the movie, with patriotic fists pumping, filled with pride that we have conducted all sorts of henious actions with our clandestine services any more than I am excited that we continue such action using drone strikes and who knows what else. I also wasn't convinced that the small amount of "information" acquired from the torture scenes was necessarily demonstrating that torture works and is worth doing. Some of characters seemed to think so but that didn't convince me that it's fucking true so I didn't walk out of the movie believing anything different about torture than I did walking in, that is to say, I am against it.

I do acknowledge, however, that those things are happening (have happened) whether I like it or not and a movie that depicts what is happening does not automatically make it an endorsement. Bigelow has even stated:

First of all: I support every American's 1st Amendment right to create works of art and speak their conscience without government interference or harassment. As a lifelong pacifist, I support all protests against the use of torture, and, quite simply, inhumane treatment of any kind.
But I do wonder if some of the sentiments alternately expressed about the film might be more appropriately directed at those who instituted and ordered these U.S. policies, as opposed to a motion picture that brings the story to the screen.

Those of us who work in the arts know that depiction is not endorsement. If it was, no artist would be able to paint inhumane practices, no author could write about them, and no filmmaker could delve into the thorny subjects of our time.
This is an important principle to stand up for, and it bears repeating. For confusing depiction with endorsement is the first step toward chilling any American artist's ability and right to shine a light on dark deeds, especially when those deeds are cloaked in layers of secrecy and government obfuscation.

 Apparently this is not good enough as Bill Maher said in his blog recently:

But what about the stuff about depiction not being endorsement? Does she really believe that? If only we could be sure she was telling the truth. Maybe with jumper cables.

To which I ask, Why would she lie? Has she really become a partisan advocate for the war on terror and is actually making pro-torture propaganda? Was the U.S. highlighted as the "good guys" in that movie? I didn't think so, in fact, a lot of what I thought about after seeing it was just how dark things are, how dark we had to become. That along with the usual notion of what a completely insulated bubble of western comfort and riches we are truly living in. We are floating in this puffy cloud, stuffing our faces, polluting the world with our junk food and junk culutre and we seem to be more upset at the moment with the fact that a movie semi-accurately depicted a part of the world that most of us barely even realize is out there. Truth is most of the world looks like those third world ghettos depicted in that film and it's no wonder that so many of the people live in that real world would hate the shit out of our flabby, entitled asses. This isn't me agreeing with such a sentiment as it is my recognizing another point of view, not unlike the movie does to some extent.

Bigelow also says:

On a practical and political level, it does seem illogical to me to make a case against torture by ignoring or denying the role it played in U.S. counter-terrorism policy and practices.
 Experts disagree sharply on the facts and particulars of the intelligence hunt, and doubtlessly that debate will continue. As for what I personally believe, which has been the subject of inquiries, accusations and speculation, I think Osama bin Laden was found due to ingenious detective work. Torture was, however, as we all know, employed in the early years of the hunt. That doesn't mean it was the key to finding Bin Laden. It means it is a part of the story we couldn't ignore. War, obviously, isn't pretty, and we were not interested in portraying this military action as free of moral consequences.
In that vein, we should never discount and never forget the thousands of innocent lives lost on 9/11 and subsequent terrorist attacks. We should never forget the brave work of those professionals in the military and intelligence communities who paid the ultimate price in the effort to combat a grave threat to this nation's safety and security.
Bin Laden wasn't defeated by superheroes zooming down from the sky; he was defeated by ordinary Americans who fought bravely even as they sometimes crossed moral lines, who labored greatly and intently, who gave all of themselves in both victory and defeat, in life and in death, for the defense of this nation.

But I suppose that is more disingenuous propaganda since there's probably people out there who cheered when Osama was killed and walked away from the film thinking that it was torture that lead to his death and completely ignore the years and years of hard work and research or, as Bigelow calls it, detective work is completely discounted and invalid. None of it was right, none of this should be what our supposed moral nation should have done, or continue to do, so isn't the real issue with the nation and not Kathryn Bigelow's movie? Maybe I am just put off because people who I like and respect make me feel like that by liking this movie as much as I did I therefore am also somehow endorsing torture. I also liked "Django Unchained" so I wonder if that endorsed slavery by depiction?

I suppose this is certainly not the most important debate right now but it really kind of got in my craw largely because the movie is so god damn good. Maybe that was part of the problem, enjoying this exhilarating ride brings with it guilt because it was all executed at the cost of our own, imagined moral compass for America.

Oooh...Guns! Guns! Guns!

You know, I have really been trying to avoid wading any further into the "great national debate" we are currently in the midst of regarding guns. Yesterday Obama made his speech and the gun enthusiast crowd responded, and continue to respond, in their typical, off-the-deep-end sort of way. It has been fairly terrible to watch un-spool across the internet from online newspaper comment sections, political blogs, and the worst of it on your average Facebook post. The noise is deafening and the mood is sour and the sad truth is that, at least in any of the places I have cared to look, there are no rational, reasoned discussions to be found. Just attack after attack after attack...and rather then post a bunch of links to this article or that evidence report or whatever I just want to address the one aspect of this thing that bugs me the most and that's the gun nuts themselves.

It's not even about the issues they are so very passionate about or whether or not they're right or wrong. It's not about the phoney statistics and the generalized solution to these sorts of problems is more guns in the "right hands." It's about this weird obsessive behavior that prevents any sort of rational discussion. This near sociopath like sickness gun enthusiasts seem to have that causes a fairly soft-ball list of "executive orders" mentioned along with the desire for Congress to re-instate the useless assault weapons ban from the 1990's (which will likely not even pass) can only be equated with, as Hamster put it in all caps in his post earlier today, "THEY ARE COMING FOR YOUR GUNS!" As what seems typical with our friends on the extreme right (or really, so it seems anyway, just 'on the right') is that there is no grey, no middle ground, no meeting anything half way...It's either we can have any and all the guns we want OR They are confiscating all of our guns. There's only ever two extremes, period, and it is nauseating.

You can't even ask the simplest questions, such as, "why do we need assault weapons?" Without getting angry paragraph after angry paragraph about freedom, slippery-slopes, constitutional god given rights and on and on and on and should you press the issue further you will be taken down a rabbit hole not unlike what Hamster posted below. Usually with lots of insults and paranoid references to the New World Order and/or United Nations and doomsday preparations and nine or ten other various "conspiracies." I sometimes wonder if there's some sort of obsessive disorder one can acquire by handling firearms? Maybe there's something in the gun oil or an adverse reaction to gun powder that triggers some bi-polar emotional stress disorder? It would make sense as I know more than a few otherwise competent, rational people who got into guns at some point and then completely lost their damn minds and are unable or unwilling to debate this issue without proverbially frothing at the mouth and spouting all sorts of straw men and false equivalences that the supposed debate may as well be a couple of insane homeless people ranting in the street.

And who, might I rhetorically ask, benefits from all of this? Certainly not the evil "Big Government" and certainly not me or Joe Gun Owner...You follow the money and guess who's at the end of that very substantial green rainbow? Gun manufactures are raking in cash hand over fist this year. AR-15s, other so-called assault rifles, high capacity magazines and ammunition are selling faster than these companies can produce them and gun show attendance is said to have doubled or tripled from this time last year. Why? Because these people are afraid. Afraid they won't be able to get these items anymore and afraid that "someone" will be coming to get the guns they have. Which, incidentally, is why I am not pro-gun ban because it is nothing but a fruitless gesture, may as well try to ban air and say breathing is illegal for all the good it will do. Why are these people so afraid? Well, let's read this e-mail that was sent out earlier today from NRA-ILA (the NRA's lobbying wing) Executive Director Chris Cox :

There are political fires raging across Capitol Hill right now and they’re closing in fast on your Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
President Barack Obama and anti-gun politicians are on an all-out crusade to pass new laws that would: BAN tens of millions of rifles, shotguns and handguns…make it more difficult, expensive, and in some cases, ILLEGAL for you to purchase ammunition…and even FORCE you to register your firearms with the federal government.
Some are even talking about a mandatory gun confiscation and “buyback” program - where you would be forced to hand over your guns in exchange for a government check!
NONE of this would have the slightest impact on making our children, our homes, or our communities safer. And that’s sad, because now more than ever, we need our elected officials to take serious steps toward improving public safety… particularly in our nation’s schools.
But the fact is, despite their statements, the main goal of the gun banners in Congress is not to make schools safer, but to ban your guns and abolish every last sacred right you have under the Second Amendment..until they reduce your freedom to ashes.
Your NRA-ILA is fighting every hour of every day to hold the line, but there is no way we can win without your full and active participation RIGHT NOW.
President Barack Obama recently pledged to raise $20 million to ram his gun ban agenda through Congress. And Obama’s got plenty of rich, gun-hating friends in Hollywood, along with anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg, who will shower him with the money he needs to strip you of your gun rights.
I don’t have friends like that. I’ve got something much better…YOU. You know what’s at stake. You love your freedom and your country, and I know you’re willing to STAND AND FIGHT to save both of them.
So please, whatever you can afford to give NRA-ILA right now, I need you to do it.
Whether it’s as little as $10, or as much as $150 or more, every single dollar will go toward winning this once-in-a-generation battle to save our Second Amendment freedom. AND EVERY SINGLE DOLLAR YOU GIVE TODAY COUNTS!
Your contributions to NRA-ILA support our fight on your behalf in the halls of Congress and across the country. Your contributions are the lifeblood of our legislative and legal initiatives, research, educational pieces, press activities, and all of our pro-gun advertising and grassroots activism.
There is no other way to put it: Our strength comes from you. Our ability to win comes from you. That’s why I’m asking you to help save our Second Amendment by making NRA-ILA stronger than ever before.
Thank you for everything you do to support NRA-ILA and defend freedom.
Please help as soon as you can.
Sincerely,
Chris

 I remember being handed a piece of NRA propaganda back in 2004 that was a bullet point list of talking points about how, if John Kerry wins the 2004 election, that despite whatever statements he made, "the main goal of John Kerry is to ban your guns and abolish the second ammendment." Or something to that effect. It had all sorts of completely absurd claims about bullet taxes increasing 1000% and naturally a ban on all guns thus taking away all of your rights. It's always framed in the context of an epic battle against the government that has to be won. Almost as if those who are not part of the NRA world are the enemy thus they must be defeated and, I guess, destroyed. In fact, I hear tell that all those evil, hypocritical liberal politicians and their minions are all on an official "enemies list because they're enemies of FREEDOM! Look at the language they use in just that e-mail, "I  know you're willing to STAND AND FIGHT!" or how about that biblical sounding, "...and abolish every last sacred right you have under the Second Amendment..until they reduce your freedom to ashes." Well, holy shit! Not only is my right to bear arms in the constitution it's sacred! We don't need to have assault weapons, God needs us to have them!

And the only way to stop them from FORCING you to sell your guns to the government buyback program and allowing them to make all ammunition illegal and FORCE you to be put on a government registration list  is to SEND THE NRA MONEY! RIGHT FUCKING NOW!!! Are you having a hard time convincing your fellow, misinformed, uneducated, citizens that we need guns to protect our families and our sacred rights? Then please consider purchasing this NRA Education pack complete with educational brochures, videos and a wealth of informative resources to help you help them understand our freedoms! Only $19.95!

And friend, why stop there? Why not join the NRA?! It's only $25 for one year, $50 for two or a mere $70 for three years! Plus if you act today, in addition to a subscription to one of our several, award-winning magazines you can choose a free gift such as an official NRA pocket knife or a NRA camouflage duffel bag useful for hiding your guns in the woods! Our magazines will act as a monthly conduit of the latest firearm information from the newest in Browning rifle stocks to the latest attempt by hypocritical, liberal elitists to turn you and your family into unarmed slaves. How have you come this far in life without it? We will flood your mailbox, inbox, fax machine, voice mail to the limit with our pro-gun, grassroots, down home cookin' and activism! JOIN RIGHT NOW!

Behold:

ELITIST HYPOCRITE!

Don't fall for Obama and his minions' anti-freedom propaganda USE OURS! Self-appointed king of America wants to tyrannically turn America into socialist nazi Germany! Pay no attention that the NRA is actually using similar propaganda tactics to the nazis because Obama and his, "rich, gun-hating friends in Hollywood, along with anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg, who will shower him with the money he needs to strip you of your gun rights" are trying to wipe away your freedoms BECAUSE THEY HATE THE CONSTITUTION! NEVER MIND THAT THE COMPARING YOUR CHILDREN'S LACK OF ARMED SECURITY TO OBAMA'S CHILDREN'S SECRET SERVICE DETAIL DOESN'T MAKE SENSE AT ALL...HE'S COMING FOR YOUR GUNS AND WE NEED YOUR MONEY TO STOP HIM!?

Then there might be something about violent videogames and Hollywood movies glorifying violence, which is I always thought was their way of trying to get the government to take away liberals' toys so they will finally understand how it feels. After all, if one watches pornography then feels like fucking it must follow that if one watches a violent movie then they must feel like killing, right? You want to argue that point? Oh, well then...YOU OBVIOUSLY DO NOT UNDERSTAND FREEDOM BECAUSE IT STARTS WITH HIGH CAPACITY MAGAZINES TODAY SO NO DOUBT TOMORROW IT'LL BE ALL GUNS!

THEY'RE COMING FOR MY GUNS!!!

UPDATE 1/18/13

It's worth noting that this post went off the rails a bit without making the obvious point that the NRA, and thus it's members, over react in a hyper-passionate, semi-dangerous way. Liberal rag Mother Jones did a nice post collecting all the craziest online here. One of my favorites is the CEO of Tactical Response, James Yeager, who is probably the kind of guy I would cast in my movie called, "Stereotypical gun nut."

"Fuck that. I'm telling you that if that happens it's gonna spark a civil war, and I'll be glad to fire the first shot... I am not letting my country be ruled by a dictator, I'm not letting anybody take my guns. If it goes one inch further, I'm gonna start killing people." 

Sadly, as MJ pointed out in their article, Mr. Yeager had his handgun carry permit suspended by the state. Sad-face, Government 1  James 0. Look through all the other posts; "Obama is a king!" "When will he be impeached?" "He used children JUST LIKE SADDAM HUSSEIN!" It's also worth pointing that a majority of these reactions are to Obama declaring an assault weapons by executive order, which if you are actually paying attention he didn't do, he asked Congress to reinstate that ban from the 1990's which, thinking of the house specifically, seems a real tough nut to crack.

"This is stuff they've always wanted to do, and now this has created the political climate to pursue it." -Marco Rubio

There's that liberal enemy coming after the guns with their manifesto and propaganda, never mind the majority of American people wanted something done, they should have done nothing! No matter that it's all bunk that won't pass, wont work, but they're still so damn mad! Again from that same MJ post:

After telling Fox News that most of Obama's executive orders were ineffectual, meaningless bureaucratic recommendations, the right-wing talk-show host changed his mind: "There are certain things in his executive orders that are un-American. In some ways they’re even fascistic." Goaded on by Neil Cavuto, he continued: "Obama doesn't believe in legislation. He believes in executive fiat...The attempt to nationalize the medical profession, and have doctors reporting their clients to the federal government, this is 1930s stuff. The American people to rise up against that. The medical profession needs to say no."

There's gotta be a revolution! It's the 1930's (which I can only guess he meant Germany in the 1930's) because this ain't mah president and only mah views matter because only mah view of the constitution is correct. Keep screaming my crazy friends, no reason anyone in government need do anything but scream and yell and further divide. Believe the propaganda that makes you the most comfortable.

THIS CAN NOT STAND!

 By Hamster Running on the Server Wheel

And so it begins...

I asked Joe to lead this effort in part because he wrote the 1994 crime bill that helped law enforcement bring down the rate of violent crime in this country. That plan — that bill also included the assault weapons ban that was publicly supported at the time by former presidents, including Ronald Reagan.
The good news is there’s already a growing consensus for us to build from. A majority of Americans support banning the sale of military-style assault weapons. A majority of Americans support banning the sale of high-capacity ammunition clips. A majority of Americans support laws requiring background checks before all gun purchases so that criminals can’t take advantage of legal loopholes to buy a gun from somebody who won’t take the responsibility of doing a background check at all.

 That right there is our dear leader, B. Hussein Obama, kicking off his second term doing exactly what I, and the majority of real Americans, have been telling you liberal loons was going to happen from day one. He's coming for our guns.  He's going to disarm Americans with one pointless, socialist, nazi-like law at a time and he's not going to stop until it's 2016 and re-nominates himself our perpetual President forever because of whatever media created "crisis" of the day his minions and liberal, new world order overlords order him to exploit. And friends, I don't think I need to tell you that THIS CAN NOT STAND!

ANY RATIONAL TRUE PATRIOT WITH EVEN AN OUNCE OF CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS CAN CLEARLY SEE THAT THIS IS A BOLD AND EXPLOITATIVE ATTEMPT TO USURP AMERICA AS PER THE PLANS OF THE SHADOWY INTERNATIONAL CONSORTIUM THAT MAKE UP THE NEW WORLD ORDER! IT'S A SLIPPERY SLOPE THAT ENDS WITH A UNARMED, UNAWARE AND ENSLAVED FORMER REPUBLIC OF AMERICA AND WE MUST PUT OUR FOOT DOWN RIGHT NOW! ALL OF THESE MASS SHOOTINGS WERE PROBABLY CONSPIRACIES ENACTED BY THE SHADOW GOVERNMENT WITH THE EXPRESS PURPOSE OF PUTTING FORWARD THIS ILLEGAL, UNCONSTITUTIONAL, GUN COLLECTION OBAMA ANNOUNCED YESTERDAY!!!

YES, I AM YELLING!!!

Now, let's go point by point with your majesty, the King Obama's 23 point executive list of illegal, extraordinary, oppressive bullshit shall we?

1. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system.

This is a fancy way of stating that he is ordering an official hit-list so that the government will know exactly who has guns, how many, where they live, age, and everything else they need to know to take your guns when the official collection starts.

2. Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background check system.

This ties in with #1 above so they they can also tie your private health records to these lists so they can exploit your weaknesses when need be and use against you in public smear campaigns if necessary. Rights? HA! You have no rights when living under tyranny.

3. Improve incentives for states to share information with the background check system.

Honest, true American states like Texas and Tennessee will be forced to comply under threat of being cut off by the Yankee, illegal union rather than look after their citizens god given, American rights to privacy as they are supposed to do per that now assaulted and tread upon document we call the U.S. Constitution.

4. Direct the Attorney General to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks.

This point demonstrates how completely fruitless this entire bullshit list is as criminals and maniacs slip through every crack because THAT'S WHAT THEY DO!?!?  All the laws in the universe will not prevent that nor have they or will they prevent any other mass murders, regular murders, crimes of passion, robberies or otherwise because they are crimes. Meanwhile nothing will change as these laws will prevent law abiding citizens like you and me from being able to defend ourselves against all of the above as well as special ops assaults on our schools meant to appear as mass murders so as to further the liberal-socialist-new-world-order take-over agenda.

5. Propose rulemaking to give law enforcement the ability to run a full background check on an individual before returning a seized gun.

This is pointless because we ALL know no one is having any guns returned. Once the state gets it never gives back. Laughable B. Hussein.

6. Publish a letter from ATF to federally licensed gun dealers providing guidance on how to run background checks for private sellers.

May as well say, "The government will tell you in writing what to do and how to do it, 'citizen.' Because you have no rights."

7. Launch a national safe and responsible gun ownership campaign.

Also known as, "Government Propaganda." "Citizens this is how you think." See also, Germany in the 1930's.

8. Review safety standards for gun locks and gun safes (Consumer Product Safety Commission).

"Tell private corporations what to make and how to make them because Big government knows better."

9. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered in criminal investigations.

Because it's the guns that did the crime and whatever law abiding citizen that may have so much as even looked upon that murderous, "criminal gun" will need to be prosecuted and given a record that will be un-expungable and affect that powerless citizen's prospects from then on, forever.  It'll show up in criminal background checks, mental health records, credit reports and in the "national gun database" preventing you from finding meaningful employment, gaining any sort of fair financing options and you'll lose your right to vote like a common criminal. To say nothing of ever being able to legally own a firearm or probably even a driver's license.

10. Release a DOJ report analyzing information on lost and stolen guns and make it widely available to law enforcement.

 Fill "DOJ" report with whomever the government likes thus directly contributing to point 9 as described above.

11. Nominate an ATF director.

"Install like-minded, liberal, anti-gun nut to take front and center of the beginning of the national gun collection."

12. Provide law enforcement, first responders, and school officials with proper training for active shooter situations.

This implies that law enforcement have had no training on dealing with other people with guns. Law enforcement needs to get on our side of this issue because I KNOW some cops and they know exactly how to deal with "active shooters." School officials, on the other hand, shouldn't be trained by the government because then they will fail...They need to be trained by the NRA so that they a) do it right and b)  also know the truth about guns, our rights, and protect my children and yours if and when necessary.

13. Maximize enforcement efforts to prevent gun violence and prosecute gun crime.

Essentially says, put all legal gun owners into camps who do not comply with the gun collection. You'll see, in the next year or so key figures in the NRA and elsewhere will start getting disappeared because the war, however quietly, has begun.

14. Issue a Presidential Memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence.

Six-year-old school children already know what the results of this clap-trap, phoney "research" will turn up. This is just yet another cynical abuse of government authority to gin up a bunch of fake, poorly thought out or researched hooey in the form of an "official CDC report" with the end goal of "supporting" the governments impending, illegal, unconstitutional gun collection.

15. Direct the Attorney General to issue a report on the availability and most effective use of new gun safety technologies and challenge the private sector to develop innovative technologies.

 This is just a re-stating of point 8, "Tell private corporations what to make and how to make them because Big government knows better."

16. Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes.

 Clever way to tie one illegal, socialist agenda to another while violating your now lost right to privacy even further. Also another way for a federal employee to tell you what to do freedom lover.

17. Release a letter to health care providers clarifying that no federal law prohibits them from reporting threats of violence to law enforcement authorities.

You work for us health care and you tell us what we want to know or else! We're all Big Government now.

18. Provide incentives for schools to hire school resource officers.

But no money, so fuck that. Your kids need to start packing because liberal, namby-pamby teachers surely can't be expected to take on any form of responsibility for their safety. Not surprising really since those lazy, good-for-nothing, state employees can barely be responsible for your children's education either. What do you expect from a professional babysitter who work part-time for nine months a year? They're just hanging around waiting until they hit 54 and finish robbing you of your tax dollars with their undeserved government pensions. Why would they spend even a minute learning to properly protect your family? These people don't have any skills that's why they became teachers!

19. Develop model emergency response plans for schools, houses of worship and institutions of higher education.

Again, the government needs to tell these organizations what to do.

20. Release a letter to state health officials clarifying the scope of mental health services that Medicaid plans must cover.

I think this almost has merit in that mental health is probably the one thing this country needs help on, too bad it's more about stealing my tax money to pay for other deadbeat people's psychiatrist appointments. Welfare momma's now gonna get free mental health care stamps on my dime, probably. 

21. Finalize regulations clarifying essential health benefits and parity requirements within ACA exchanges.

This is just government mumbo-jumbo that actually doesn't mean anything.

22. Commit to finalizing mental health parity regulations.

More meaningless mumbo-jumbo.

23. Launch a national dialogue led by Secretaries Sebelius and Duncan on mental health.

This is the only point that is worth enacting, for all the good it will do because I imagine 98% of our once great country probably have no idea who "Sebelius and Duncan" are...In fact, I am almost 90% sure they are professors at Hogwarts.

There you have it folks! Though I think this post would have been a lot shorter if I just wrote what all 23 of these points and Obama's call to tyranny on January 16th, 2013 really said...

THEY ARE COMING FOR YOUR GUNS!

See you at the gun shows friends! My third AR-15 is on backorder and I am still in need of a few more tons of ammunition so I got work to do!