Take some damn personal responsibility!!

POSTED BY JHW22

No, you should not take responsibility for a jack-ass who asks, "Who is going to shoot President Obama?" but you should take responsibility for not telling that man, and the audience who LAUGHED at the question, that not only is the question inappropriate but also DANGEROUS AS HELL!!!

HELLO! We still have a member of Congress recovering from being SHOT IN THE HEAD. Today is the birthday of one of her staffers who died, Gabe Zimmerman. One of her other staffers returned to work on Wednesday, Pamela Simon. Political violence is real even if it's a crazy man who pulls the trigger. And it's the crazy person we should all keep in mind when violent words are spoken.

And no, a belated lame-ass statement IS NOT accepting personal responsibility for allowing a violent question to go unaddressed. We do not accept changing the subject, allowing people to laugh without being told to stop and without a significant statement AT THE TIME calling that language UNACCEPTABLE.

I think a proper way to show personal responsibility is for Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) to resign. That way the message is loud and clear -- Americans DO NOT THREATEN THE PRESIDENT.

Not a Good Ad

POSTED BY JHW22

So, in the let's be civil and responsible atmosphere of the post-Tuscon shooting era, this Facebook ad is a major FAIL. By the way, if you click on the link, you'll see a weird page that offers not just a free copy of Human Action by Ludwig von Mises, but also a lot of great information about gold from First National Bullion and coin. WACKO!

What's Prayer Got to Do With It?

POSTED BY JHW22

For decades, we have been told that the removal of God from schools has caused all of our problems.

For starters, God wasn’t removed from schools and neither was prayer. Any teacher can pray any day, any time, anywhere in a public school. So can students. The only change made since the good ol’ days is that prayer cannot be school-sanctioned or led: we can no longer have a prayer led by school staff. But we have a moment of silence that is specifically for anyone who wants to pray to have time to do so and for anyone who doesn’t want to pray to think about something else. Sometimes I wonder if Christian parents are afraid that their kids aren’t praying during that time thus all the hubbub. Are they really bothered because they think their children aren’t praying when they aren’t there to make them do it? Just a curiosity, but seems plausible.

In addition to America sucking because God isn’t going to school anymore (us sucking is according to the very people who don't like it when Democrats take responsibility for our nation's mistakes), we have been told that natural disasters are the result of gay people being gay. Never mind that straight people die in those disasters and some are probably prayerful homophobes.

Now, if we’re a "Christian Nation," I often wonder why all the Christians haven’t been able to prevent all this crap they blame on the lack of school prayer. I mean they ARE the majority and they pray at home and church and at restaurants and in the car and on Facebook and in email chains, etc. So why do we still have so many problems if prayer is the answer and they all pray so much? Is the lack of prayer led by teachers THE reason? Are gay people really to blame? Seems like I, as a non-prayer, am being blamed for bad things I don't do. I am being blamed for crime and vile sex acts and other sins simply because I don't support proselytizing in public schools.

So then Reagan's line (that Palin just had to cite) about only the criminal being to blame, yadda, yadda, doesn't apply when prayer is on the line? So, if we don't pray as a class, we're all to blame for a classmate going crazy and killing someone?

If Christian kids are raised right, they should be taking advantage of prayer all the time and privately. So it can’t be MY fault -- as an atheist who doesn’t want to hear or have to use part of my time participating in something irrelevant to me – when Christian kids don't pray whenever and wherever. It’s not because of my lack of belief if a child doesn’t pray enough. Don’t pretend that public prayer is more consequential than silent prayer. And don’t blame the lack of required public prayer for our ills while avoiding responsibility for not praying enough or well enough or for the right things on your own time.

Finally, if all of this is true, why is the absence of something they think is good so impactful, yet violent rhetoric isn’t?

When someone from the “prayer should be in schools to prevent horrors” side of the debate uses language to divide and imply violence is a solution, don’t then say words don’t matter and that only the criminal is accountable. Or if you want to say that only the criminal is accountable, then don’t blame the lack of school prayer for someone's crimes.

I leave you with this poll that is quite relevant and helped me formulate my thoughts even though it's not specifically what I wrote about.

Well, duh!

POSTED BY JHW22

So the current response to the "tone down the rhetoric" common sense is "but, but, but... the guy was crazy" Well, no shit! That's who we have said WOULD be the wrong person to hear the violent rhetoric. I don't recall anyone saying, over the last two years, that we need to be careful what we say because some SANE person might decide to react with violence. Um, DUH!

(BTW, I am avoiding using the name of the shooter/terrorist/assassin so as not to give him one more search result.)

TOO FAR!

POSTED BY JHW22

Per an article in November regarding the violent rhetoric and what Congresswoman Giffords' opponent did to stoke the flames.

He seems to be embracing his fellow tea partier's idea. Kelly's campaign event website has a stern-looking photo of the former Marine in military garb holding his weapon. It includes the headline: "Get on Target for Victory in November. Help remove Gabrielle Giffords from office. Shoot a fully automatic M16 with Jesse Kelly."

Quote of the Day

It is disingenuous for mainstream purveyors of incendiary far-right rhetoric to dismiss groups such as the Hutaree by saying that there are "crazies on both sides." This simply is not true.

...there has been explosive growth among far-right, militia-type groups that identify themselves as white supremacists, "constitutionalists," tax protesters and religious soldiers determined to kill people to uphold "Christian" values. ...we should never forget that the worst act of domestic terrorism ever committed in this country was authored by a member of the government-hating right wing: Timothy McVeigh's bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City.

It is dishonest for right-wing commentators to insist on an equivalence that does not exist. The danger of political violence in this country comes overwhelmingly from one direction -- the right, not the left. The vitriolic, anti-government hate speech that is spewed on talk radio every day -- and, quite regularly, at Tea Party rallies -- is calibrated not to inform but to incite.

~ Eugene Robinson, Washington Post

Jon Stewart's Back...

...and comments on the violence, post health care bill passage.



ADDING... Is this your typical Glenn Beck viewer? I'd say so.

Civility My Ass - GOP Condones Violence

Now we know where they stand.  The Party of No says they don't condone the violence but refuse to sign a joint letter with Democrats saying so.

The Republican National Committee has rejected a proposal from its Democratic counterpart to sign a joint “civility” statement, POLITICO has learned.

Various members of the DNC — including Chairman Tim Kaine, Executive Director Jen O’Malley Dillon and Communications Director Brad Woodhouse — contacted their respective RNC counterparts this week in hopes of getting RNC Chairman Michael Steele to co-sign a document with Kaine that, in part, called for “elected officials of both parties to set an example of the civility we want to see in our citizenry.”

“We also call on all Americans to respect differences of opinion, to refrain from inappropriate forms of intimidation, to reject violence and vandalism, and to scale back rhetoric that might reasonably be misinterpreted by those prone to such behavior,” read the proposed joint statement, which came at the end of a week which saw acts of vandalism and threats of violence directed at members of Congress from both parties, but mostly aimed at Democrats who voted “yes” on the health care bill.

Republicans see the statement as an attempt to force them to either reject the statement — allowing Democrats to say the RNC finds the incidents acceptable — or to sign on to something that the DNC would later wield against them.

Yes, they're afraid that the Democrats would wield a civility agreement against them.  Jeez...

Read more at Politico.

There Is No Equivalency

Eric Cantor is a douchebag of epic proportions.

While criticizing Democrats who've been the targets of vandalism, assault and domestic terrorism claiming they are "dangerously fanning the flames by suggesting that these incidents be used as a political weapon," simply for acknowledging they happened, said douchebag politicized the bullet that was shot into his window. There's only one problem: the bullet wasn't shot into his window.

Richmond police say the bullet that hit a window of Republican Virginia Congressman Eric Cantor's office had been randomly fired skyward.

...In a news release, Richmond police said that the bullet had been fired into the air early Tuesday. It hit the front window of a building that houses Cantor's campaign office as it fell to back earth at a sharp angle.

So he criticizes Democrats for publicizing the acts of violence... while publicizing his own event, which turned out not to be a direct act upon his office.

There is no equivalency to this incident and shattering windows with rocks. There is no equivalency to this incident and being spat upon. There is no equivalency to this incident and deliberately cutting someone's gas line whose address you got from a right wing blog.

If Cantor gets death threats in his Virginia district because he's Jewish, it's a different matter than getting death threats because you voted to give more Americans access to health care. Those are two very different scenarios.

But douchebags wouldn't know that. Or won't acknowledge it.

Adding... Perhaps Eric Cantor should look into stricter gun laws that would prevent incidents like his accidental bullet through a window to occur. What do you think are the chances?

You Know You're In Trouble When...

...you lose the support of one of your party's most recognizable, ardent supporters.

Sarah Palin's gun sight-riddled campaign map is so militant that it's even lost her the support of "The View" co-host Elizabeth Hasselbeck, who called Palin's behavior "despicable."

This is coming from someone who campaigned for Palin. It's only going to get more bizarre as we go on.