Richard Painter said it best : ” Americans are sick of political hacks talking about condolences and sympathy while stuffing NRA blood money in their pockets. Do something.”
Massachusetts U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton says he will not participate in a moment of silence on the House floor after 50 people were killed in Las Vegas and more than 400 others were sent to area hospitals in the deadliest mass shooting in American history.
…
Moulton added, “Now is not a moment for silence; it’s a time for action.”
Our national disgrace regarding gun violence is another example of the toxic religiosity I’ve complained about. I am sick to death of all this sanctimonious “prayer” and “silence”. Anybody who wants to is welcome to pray for the victims of such tragedies. It happens in the church I attend every Sunday.
Such hypocritical nonsense has no place in a national government that steadfastly REFUSES to do anything about gun violence, and in a national culture where the immediate economic reaction to horrific violence like this an increase in stock prices of gun manufacturers.
Like the Pharisees of two millennia ago, we shout our “prayers” in public while we participate in spreading evil in private. For those who actually care about such toxic religiosity, the text of Matthew 6:5-6 comes to mind (emphasis mine):
“And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
It’s time to put a STOP to the god-bothering, and instead stop this carnage.
Step 1: Put the gun manufacturers out of business. Shut them down. Hold their directors and executives personally responsible for every gun death. Tax them to death. Penalize them to them. Do whatever we have to do.
Stop this carnage. Now>
johntmaysays
Stop this carnage. Now>
And therein lies the problem with today’s Democrats.
On taxes, on trade, on labor policy, on so many issues apart from abortion and gay marriage it seems, Democrats are afraid or unwilling to take a bold stand for fear of appearing extremist (or jeopardizing their funding sources?) so they take a moderate approach on things like guns, taxes, and other issues.
Where does this get us? Politics is the art of compromise. When you are willing to compromise your moderate position with a hard core right winger, you get a bill that is sort of moderate, but much more appealing to the right than the left.
How many Democrats will actually vote to stop the carnage?
Christophersays
Pausing for a moment of silence and then taking appropriate action are hardly mutually exclusive.
SomervilleTomsays
I’m done with all this “moment of silence” hypocrisy. We’ve done it over and over and over and over and over again. We’ve done is so often that it has even less meaning than the pledge or the anthem.
Pausing for a moment of silence has meaning ONLY if it something rarely (as in a handful of times) done.
It is time to act.
SomervilleTomsays
If you want to pause for a moment of silence, yet again, by all means do so.
I’m utterly fed up with elected officials who make this somber pronouncement, put on their moment-of-silence face, and continue to do jack shit.
Call Congress @ 202-224-3121 and tell Speaker Ryan to allow debate and a vote on expanded background checks to screen out criminals, domestic abusers and the mentally ill; banning mega ammunition clips for automatic weapons of war and silencers.
SomervilleTomsays
Done.
Still, this all misses the point. Until we stop the flow of newly manufactured weapons, clips, ammunition, and accessories, we’re just pissing in the wind.
Shut them down.
fredrichlaricciasays
Put the Merchants of Death out of business.
I agree, Tom. It’s the how that’s vexing. How does one change a culture of violence into a culture of peace ?
What can men do against such reckless hate ?
fredrichlaricciasays
” The NRA has the GOP’s balls in a money clip.”
JIMMY KIMMEL
bob-gardnersays
But be prepared for the counterargument, that while the number of guns out there has risen to obscene levels, the murder rate has been cut in half.
petrsays
But be prepared for the counterargument, that while the number of guns out there has risen to obscene levels, the murder rate has been cut in half.
Right, cause the guy on the 32nd floor, if he had only two guns, instead of twenty, might have killed 118 people and injured a thousand…
bob-gardnersays
“The murder rate in our country is the highest it’s been in 47 years, right?”–Donald Trump
Sure Petr, but if you’re going to bluster while you ignore the facts, you should meet your doppelganger.
Those of us who are serious about gun control should be prepared for the facts. Even facts that don’t seem to support our argument.
The alternative is to continue to pat ourselves on the back and to be comfortable in our moral superiority. (Hi there, Fred)
fredrichlaricciasays
” Never argue with stupid people. They will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.” MARK TWAIN
Oh, hi Bob.
SomervilleTomsays
The facts and science show, compellingly, that the spike in violent crime, and subsequent declines, was and is a result of lead poisoning from automobile emissions. From a Forbes summary of the same piece (emphasis mine):
Starting in the 1960s, America saw a huge increase in levels of violent crime that peaked in the early 1990s, then steadily declined, and continues to decline today. All kinds of theories have been promulgated to explain this peak and decline in crime, and plenty of politicians in the 1990s took credit for it. But in what I personally consider to be a tour de force of journalism, Kevin Drum of Mother Jones has summarized all of the available research. All of it points to one simple idea: violent crime rose as a result of lead poisoning because of leaded gasoline. It declined because of lead abatement policies.
Just as ulcers are caused by a readily-treated bacteria, violent crime increases were caused by lead emissions. It has nothing to with “broken windows”. It turns out that violent crime in NY actually peaked 4 years before the famous program. It began declining in other cities and towns across America that made no such changes in police policy.
I agree with you that we must engage the facts. Here are facts regarding Mr. Trump’s claim about the murder rate:
1. Mr. Trump is, again, lying. The truth is that the US murder rate is the lowest it’s been in 45 years.
2. Violent crime is also declining, from a peak in the mid-1990s to today.
3. Such statistics are public health issues. They do not explain individual acts. Fluoridation of public water supplies is a case study of effective public health. A given child may still get cavities, even if their drinking water is fluoridated.
The facts are that we produce FAR MORE of these lethal weapons every year than are needed by any rational analysis of the facts. The case against these obscene weapons — together with the accessories and ammunition that only terrorists can possibly use — dwarfs the case against a host of already illegal products.
Tough policing did not help NYC. More guns did not change the murder rate.
An effective way to reduce domestic terror in the US is to choke the supply of the weapons and ammunition used by our domestic terrorists.
Christophersays
OK, I’m missing a connection. How does lead poisoning connect to violent crime?
SomervilleTomsays
Oh, please, Christopher, read either of the links I posted.
It’s been in the news for over a year.
From the first link (emphasis mine):
One set of scans found that lead exposure is linked to production of the brain’s white matter—primarily a substance called myelin, which forms an insulating sheath around the connections between neurons. Lead exposure degrades both the formation and structure of myelin, and when this happens, says Kim Dietrich, one of the leaders of the imaging studies, “neurons are not communicating effectively.” Put simply, the network connections within the brain become both slower and less coordinated.
A second study found that high exposure to lead during childhood was linked to a permanent loss of gray matter in the prefrontal cortex—a part of the brain associated with aggression control as well as what psychologists call “executive functions”: emotional regulation, impulse control, attention, verbal reasoning, and mental flexibility. One way to understand this, says Kim Cecil, another member of the Cincinnati team, is that lead affects precisely the areas of the brain “that make us most human.”
So lead is a double whammy: It impairs specific parts of the brain responsible for executive functions and it impairs the communication channels between these parts of the brain. For children like the ones in the Cincinnati study, who were mostly inner-city kids with plenty of strikes against them already, lead exposure was, in Cecil’s words, an “additional kick in the gut.” And one more thing: Although both sexes are affected by lead, the neurological impact turns out to be greater among boys than girls.
Other recent studies link even minuscule blood lead levels with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Even at concentrations well below those usually considered safe—levels still common today—lead increases the odds of kids developing ADHD.
In other words, as Reyes summarized the evidence in her paper, even moderately high levels of lead exposure are associated with aggressivity, impulsivity, ADHD, and lower IQ. And right there, you’ve practically defined the profile of a violent young offender.
johntmaysays
If I was in a leadership position with ISIS, I would recommend that we stop spending money and resources in training our young men to be terrorists against the USA and instead, donate those funds and resources to the NRA. It would be more cost effective and kill more Americans, based on the data we have.
johntmaysays
Ask your friends this one: The man who used home made bombs out of kitchen appliances and explosives killed 3, injured 200 and was charged with using a WMD….but the man who used a gun to kill 59 and injure over 500 was not charged with using a WMD?
SomervilleTomsays
Well, if you’re referring to Stephen Paddock, a factor in why he has not been charged with using a WMD is that he was dead by the time authorities entered his hotel room.
On this specific issue, I like the stance taken by Seth Moulton (emphasis mine):
Our national disgrace regarding gun violence is another example of the toxic religiosity I’ve complained about. I am sick to death of all this sanctimonious “prayer” and “silence”. Anybody who wants to is welcome to pray for the victims of such tragedies. It happens in the church I attend every Sunday.
Such hypocritical nonsense has no place in a national government that steadfastly REFUSES to do anything about gun violence, and in a national culture where the immediate economic reaction to horrific violence like this an increase in stock prices of gun manufacturers.
Like the Pharisees of two millennia ago, we shout our “prayers” in public while we participate in spreading evil in private. For those who actually care about such toxic religiosity, the text of Matthew 6:5-6 comes to mind (emphasis mine):
It’s time to put a STOP to the god-bothering, and instead stop this carnage.
Step 1: Put the gun manufacturers out of business. Shut them down. Hold their directors and executives personally responsible for every gun death. Tax them to death. Penalize them to them. Do whatever we have to do.
Stop this carnage. Now>
And therein lies the problem with today’s Democrats.
On taxes, on trade, on labor policy, on so many issues apart from abortion and gay marriage it seems, Democrats are afraid or unwilling to take a bold stand for fear of appearing extremist (or jeopardizing their funding sources?) so they take a moderate approach on things like guns, taxes, and other issues.
Where does this get us? Politics is the art of compromise. When you are willing to compromise your moderate position with a hard core right winger, you get a bill that is sort of moderate, but much more appealing to the right than the left.
How many Democrats will actually vote to stop the carnage?
Pausing for a moment of silence and then taking appropriate action are hardly mutually exclusive.
I’m done with all this “moment of silence” hypocrisy. We’ve done it over and over and over and over and over again. We’ve done is so often that it has even less meaning than the pledge or the anthem.
Pausing for a moment of silence has meaning ONLY if it something rarely (as in a handful of times) done.
It is time to act.
If you want to pause for a moment of silence, yet again, by all means do so.
I’m utterly fed up with elected officials who make this somber pronouncement, put on their moment-of-silence face, and continue to do jack shit.
You forgot “thoughts and prayers”…
Do something !
Call Congress @ 202-224-3121 and tell Speaker Ryan to allow debate and a vote on expanded background checks to screen out criminals, domestic abusers and the mentally ill; banning mega ammunition clips for automatic weapons of war and silencers.
Done.
Still, this all misses the point. Until we stop the flow of newly manufactured weapons, clips, ammunition, and accessories, we’re just pissing in the wind.
Shut them down.
Put the Merchants of Death out of business.
I agree, Tom. It’s the how that’s vexing. How does one change a culture of violence into a culture of peace ?
What can men do against such reckless hate ?
” The NRA has the GOP’s balls in a money clip.”
JIMMY KIMMEL
But be prepared for the counterargument, that while the number of guns out there has risen to obscene levels, the murder rate has been cut in half.
Right, cause the guy on the 32nd floor, if he had only two guns, instead of twenty, might have killed 118 people and injured a thousand…
“The murder rate in our country is the highest it’s been in 47 years, right?”–Donald Trump
Sure Petr, but if you’re going to bluster while you ignore the facts, you should meet your doppelganger.
Those of us who are serious about gun control should be prepared for the facts. Even facts that don’t seem to support our argument.
The alternative is to continue to pat ourselves on the back and to be comfortable in our moral superiority. (Hi there, Fred)
” Never argue with stupid people. They will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.” MARK TWAIN
Oh, hi Bob.
The facts and science show, compellingly, that the spike in violent crime, and subsequent declines, was and is a result of lead poisoning from automobile emissions. From a Forbes summary of the same piece (emphasis mine):
Just as ulcers are caused by a readily-treated bacteria, violent crime increases were caused by lead emissions. It has nothing to with “broken windows”. It turns out that violent crime in NY actually peaked 4 years before the famous program. It began declining in other cities and towns across America that made no such changes in police policy.
I agree with you that we must engage the facts. Here are facts regarding Mr. Trump’s claim about the murder rate:
1. Mr. Trump is, again, lying. The truth is that the US murder rate is the lowest it’s been in 45 years.
2. Violent crime is also declining, from a peak in the mid-1990s to today.
3. Such statistics are public health issues. They do not explain individual acts. Fluoridation of public water supplies is a case study of effective public health. A given child may still get cavities, even if their drinking water is fluoridated.
The facts are that we produce FAR MORE of these lethal weapons every year than are needed by any rational analysis of the facts. The case against these obscene weapons — together with the accessories and ammunition that only terrorists can possibly use — dwarfs the case against a host of already illegal products.
Tough policing did not help NYC. More guns did not change the murder rate.
An effective way to reduce domestic terror in the US is to choke the supply of the weapons and ammunition used by our domestic terrorists.
OK, I’m missing a connection. How does lead poisoning connect to violent crime?
Oh, please, Christopher, read either of the links I posted.
It’s been in the news for over a year.
From the first link (emphasis mine):
If I was in a leadership position with ISIS, I would recommend that we stop spending money and resources in training our young men to be terrorists against the USA and instead, donate those funds and resources to the NRA. It would be more cost effective and kill more Americans, based on the data we have.
Ask your friends this one: The man who used home made bombs out of kitchen appliances and explosives killed 3, injured 200 and was charged with using a WMD….but the man who used a gun to kill 59 and injure over 500 was not charged with using a WMD?
Well, if you’re referring to Stephen Paddock, a factor in why he has not been charged with using a WMD is that he was dead by the time authorities entered his hotel room.