Unfortunately, as we saw in the last episode, Rick’s son Carl only has about 30% accuracy while consistently aiming at the sky…
Remember the uproar at Janet Jackson and Justin Timerlake’s “wardrobe malfunction” at the Super Bowl? “Nipplegate” has made the Media rounds for years now. Yet, graphic violence shown during Terrorist bombings, people running cars through storefronts and up-close-and-personal videos from War Journalists are unquestionably acceptable. So why all the rage at Fox News for accidentally showing a man shoot himself? You really have to wonder if the public at large is truly as horrified as the anchor at a competing network, or if it’s all just a ruse because of politics…
A friend of mine sent me this cartoon earlier, and I find it perfect considering the media’s anti-gun standpoint in the wake of the mass shooting last week.
[ Copyright © Leo Garza / San Antonio Express-News ]
Having been around guns since I was … well, born, actually … I learned to have a healthy respect for them. As a child, I never touched them unless they were handed to me. I didn’t tell my friends about them. I didn’t ever show them to my friends. I didn’t carry them around with me. I certainly never took one to show-and-tell.
Why?
Because I listened to what my father told me.
Flash forward a lot of years, and any time a child doesn’t listen to their parents and does any of those things with a gun, the media goes insane about it.
The problem isn’t guns — it’s in raising a child who has no idea about cause-and-effect relationships, no responsibility or consequences for their own actions.
Guns should be kept away from children. I agree with that. Some people should not own guns. I agree with that. But making widespread sweeping changes and Federal bans on guns?
Congress doesn’t know enough about firearms to make any such distinctions. There are any number of stumbling blocks here. You can’t go out today and come home with a handgun. You can’t go out today and purchase a fully automatic, military-style weapon — nor can you in two weeks. Or a month. Or six.
We have enjoyed gun ownership since this country was founded. There are plenty of them around. Employing strict gun control laws only affects guns that the Government knows about, viz. AR-15 rifles. Since we’ve been signing up for them, with background checks, for nearly thirty years, then what are we supposed to do?
In essence, the Government would be saying, “Oh, by the way, that gun you signed for twenty years ago? Give it here. No, you haven’t done anything wrong. But … Give it! No, I don’t care how much you paid for it, and I don’t care what it’s worth. I’ll give you to the count of three, or I’ll have to shoot you… 1 … 2 … I thought so.”
“But you don’t need a Glock 17 that can hold 19 rounds!” some scream.
I would argue that they don’t need an SUV with a 24-gallon gas tank that has to be refilled every 200 miles.
Sure, my gun might, one day, give one person a really bad day if they come into my home with the intent of causing me harm. But their SUV is nothing more than a carbon monoxide factory that is destroying the ozone layer and screwing it up for all of us.
Which one’s really more important?
On 19-Apr-2007, vehement gun control activists, The Brady Campaign, released a press statement, titled, “Cho Seung-Hui Was A Prohibited Purchaser Under Existing Federal Law.”
Brady Campaign To Prevent Gun Violence President Paul Helmke issued the following statement:
“We believe that based on existing Federal law, Cho Seung-Hui should not have passed his Brady background checks and should not have been allowed to purchase firearms.”
So, basically, they’re saying that even though there were laws in place to prevent Cho from ever owning a gun, he got them anyway, because someone broke the law. Was it Cho? The seller? Those responsible for the background check?
Whatever the answer, it doesn’t change the fact that no amount of legislation would have kept it from happening.
Heed My Words: Gun control isn’t going to affect the massive number of illegal, untraceable guns that are out there, and it will leave a populace completely undefended against those who possess them.
One of the biggest things that sickens me about many “Christian” groups is their propensity to back up their wicked, hateful ideas with obscure Biblical references.
By now, most everyone in the country has heard something about the so-called “Reverend,” Fred Phelps, of the Westboro Baptist Church — either heard about him personally, or the work he’s done as an Anti-American (“God Hates the USA!”), as an instigator of violence against homosexuals (“God Hates Fags!”), or as an instigator of hatred against Jews, Catholics, Muslims, Roman Catholics, George Bush, Jews, Women, Rye Bread, Israel. Carpet, and your next door neighbor’s cat. And Catholics. And Jews. And Fruit Roll-ups.
What self-respecting Christian could possibly follow an asshat like this? Apparently, up to about 200. The number frequently changes, mind you, and could be as low as 15.
The WBC is labeled a Hate Group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and is rightfully on the Anti-Defamation League watch list. The group is so hateful, in fact, that even Michael Moore and the Ku Klux Klan have attempted to counter them.
He and his “faithful followers” have protested the funerals of U.S. Soldiers, and are now turning their vileness towards victims of Virginia Tech shooting:
WBC will preach at the funerals of the Virginia Tech students killed on campus during a shooting rampage April 16, 2007. You describe this as monumental horror, but you know nothing of horror — yet. Your bloody tyrant Bush says he is ‘horrified’ by it all. You know nothing of horror — yet. Your true horror is coming. ‘They shall also gird themselves with sackloth, and horror shall cover them; and shame shall be upon all faces, and baldness upon all their heads’ (Eze. 7:18).
Why did this happen, you ask? It’s simple. Your military chose to shoot at the servants of God today, and all they got for their effort was terror. Then, the LORD your God sent a crazed madman to shoot at your children. Was God asleep while this took place? Was He on vacation? Of course not. He willed this to happen to punish you for assailing His servants.
But in reading the above, what strikes me most is that Phelps claims that God inspired a man to kill our children as punishment for our country’s involved in Iraq. When I consider the fact that Phelps has repeatedly been anti-Muslim, I find his credibility in this case pretty weak. But, apparently, anywhere from 14-200 people (discounting Phelps, himself) are able to ignore that little inconsistency…
And to debunk it a little further…
Back in the Garden of Eden, Cain became jealous of his brother, Abel, because he felt that God favored Abel. While they were out in the fields, Cain killed Abel. Why didn’t God protect Abel? Was God asleep while this took place? Was He on vacation? Of course not.
God allows us Free Will. That was the gift of the Forbidden Fruit.
There is Separation of Church and State in this country. Religious Freedom is guaranteed by the First Amendment — “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…”
What that Amendment means is that they’re not going to come and shut down Mr. Phelps “Church” because his Religion and Free Speech is protected. Put simply, they stay out of his domain, so long as he and his followers don’t take action on the garbage they’re preaching…
“The hell with your flag. The hell with your fag army, your fag courts, your fag-run government,” says Phelps. “This is the hypocritical, fag-infested, fag-run United States of America and we’re supposed to respect that fag rag flag?”
Yes, he is supposed to Respect it. This Country, and that Flag that it represents, are what gave him the right to spread his filth in the name of Religion.
I would also have them remember that Government will stay out of their Church’s domain only so much as their Church stays out of the Government’s domain. With every legal line they cross while spouting their politics and hatred, they become less and less a Church, and more and more a Hate Group who spout Bible Verses.
Yes it was a tragedy, yes it was traumatic for those involved, and yes it was horribly unfair. But honestly, get over it already.
Why are we as a nation so infatuated with the death of 33 people whom most of us would never have met? Is this event any different than the thousands of other events that resulted in 1200 deaths across the nation in that same period of time? Is it suddenly news worthy when 33 people die in a single event vs hundreds or thousands dying in similar yet unrelated events?
In the United States of America, how many people drank themselves to death that day? How many innocent people were killed because someone was driving while drinking themselves to death? How many toddlers were raped by a family member. How many children were beaten, bruised, maimed, or killed by their parents that day? How many children slit their wrists or hung themselves because of depression? How many people starved to death? With the exception of starvation (just eight) each of those numbers is greater than 33, most are over 100.
There are many atrocities closer to home that we should be worried about. Yet as a people the US appears intent on ignoring the “routine deaths” in favor of the sensational. Why can’t we realize that CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and all these other so called news channels are FOR PROFIT? They don’t give one bit of shit about reporting the truth. They only care about ratings.
The news is supported by the advertisers. Ratings go up when more people watch. Advertisers pay more for shows with higher ratings. It stands to reason that a for-profit company would do everything they can to get more viewers. I see it on the national news channels, local news, and even PBS and NPR. They all constantly promise one more tidbit of information to string you along and keep you from changing channels.
Ironically, I don’t blame the news agencies. I blame you! You watch the news, you agonize over the tragedy and you buy it, hook line and sinker. Truth, lies, slanted left, slanted right, you consume it all. Your eyeballs glued to the freaking CNN or Fox News are to blame. If you wouldn’t watch the shit, they wouldn’t produce it.
So as you’re walking around tomorrow and see people wearing orange and maroon, commemorating the shooting at VT, thank them from the bottom of your heart for perpetuating a nation of lies, half truths, and sensational tragedy.
