Thursday, January 13, 2011

Macho USA: Guns R'US - Americans Addicted to Guns, Violence & Perpetual War

It sometimes seems as if a large proportion of Americans would prefer a shoot out as in the OK Corral to a peaceful solution . They would rather war than peace. They are addicted to scenes of violence and mayhem . All they appear to know is what they consider the Macho Manly thing to do is not to debate, to negotiate but rather to come out all guns blazing.
This is all part of the American frontiersmen wild west Cowboy , outlaw, desperados Machismo mystic.
When portrayed on film that is one thing -entertainment escapism,cathartic etc.
But in the real world it is deadly and stupid.
The question is should a fourteen year old be trusted with a semi automatic pistol or Uzi .
Are Uzi and M16 s a weapon that everyone should be permitted to own.

Here's the Beatles' satirical song which is since his assassination rather chilling.
Someone suggested that the song was in fact pro-gun and romanticizing violence.
Do they think "back in the USSR" is praising the Soviet Union. Lennon says he's all in favor of necessary change but not through violence and destruction as he says "then you can count me out"

John Lennon's Happiness is A Warm Gun- from "Bowling For Columbine"




Compare to Charleton Heston's Macho posturing at NRA Convention calling for all gun owning Americans to shoot any government employee who tries to take any of their guns away from Uzis to M16s to rocket launchers???



The NRA has been fueling the hate , distrust and paranoia about Obama
They erroneously claim he is going to ban all guns
The NRA defends anyone who uses their guns to shoot at officials who try to take away their guns-
They appear to suggest that a pre-emptive attack on Obama or the federal government would be justified.

NRA anti-Obama add erroneously claiming he is going to take all guns away from everybody in the USA-



At an NRA convention Mike Huckabee Jokes about Assassinating President Obama
Does he understand that making such public statements is a bit of an issue. Did he think he was at one of those old unfunny Dean Martin TV Roasts.
American presidents and candidates and other public figures have been assassinated in the past from JFK to Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King , Malcolm X, Lincoln and John Lennon etc.



Americans addicted to violence Guns & Perpetual War




Gun Emblazoned With 'You Lie!' Congressman's Quote For Sale in SC at Alternet, jan. 12, 2011

Of all the terrifying pro-gun trends to come out of the attempted assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, this is among the creepiest: a gun retailer near Columbia, South Carolina, has begun selling semi-automatic rifle components engraved with the infamous words of Republican Rep. Joe "You Lie!" Wilson, according to the Columbia Free Times.


Wilson, of course, directed that outburst at President Obama during his 2009 State of the Union address. The president was noting that the healthcare reform law would not, despite rumors to the contrary, provide taxpayer dollars to cover undocumented immigrants. After calling Obama a liar, Wilson became a Tea Party hero.

So it's clear who this retailer, the Palmetto State Armory, is marketing its product to: Tea Partiers. And the fact that the shop is selling this item in the immediate aftermath of an attempted political assassination? Yikes.



Bill Mahr on Leno -NRA-Assassins R'Us



More guns needed in University classrooms parking lots , grocery stores churches
should all professors and teachers be armed even those in preschools ,


and more madness:




Man Arrested For threatening Rep. Jim McDermott's Life Think Progress, Jan 12, 2011

In the midst of a national discussion over the country’s political tone, a California man has been arrested for threatening the life of Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA), apparently because McDermott opposed an extension of Bush tax cuts for wealthy Americans. Charles Turner Habermann of Palm Springs, CA was charged with threatening a federal official after he left disturbing voice mails at McDermott’s office on December 9:


In the first call, Habermann said he’d seen McDermott on television and was enraged by his comments opposing tax cuts for the rich.

“He’s a piece of human filth. He’s a liar, he’s a communist, he’s a piece of [expletive] garbage,” Habermann said in the recorded message, according to the criminal complaint. Habermann said George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and other U.S. founding fathers would “blow his [McDermott's] brains out” if they met him.


Habermann then threatened to kill McDermott as well as his friends and family, the complaint says. In a second call, Habermann said he had “a lot of money” and “a lot of friends” and that McDermott was “going down.”


Yesterday, a Colorado man was arrested for threatening to shoot aides for Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO). John Troy Davis, 44, was apparently upset over his Social Security benefits and told staffers on the phone that “I’m just going to come down there and shoot you all.” According to police, Davis also threatened to set fire to the office and stated that he “may go to terrorism.” Threats against members of Congress have increased 300 percent in the first few months of 2010, and 400 percent against the White House since January 2009. The U.S. Marshals Service reports that “inappropriate communications” directed at the judiciary, U.S. attorneys and other court officers have risen from 1,111 in 2006 to 1390 in 2009.
and the threats keep coming- so much for toning down the rhetoric.


"After Giffords Shooting, Several AZ Republicans Resign Amid Fears of Tea Party Violence by Lauren Kelley" via Alternet, jan 12, 2011

What the Arizona Republic calls a "nasty little battle" has broken out among Republican members of Arizona's Legislative District 20 in the wake of the Gabrielle Giffords shooting. Several Republicans have resigned, citing fears that local Tea Party supporters will harm them or their families for not being conservative enough.

Now-former Chairman Anthony Miller was among those to resign. A former campaign worker for Sen. John McCain, Miller sent an email to state Republican Party Chairman Randy Pullen just hours after Saturday's shooting, saying, "Today my wife of 20 yrs ask (sic) me do I think that my PCs (Precinct Committee members) will shoot at our home? So with this being said I am stepping down from LD20GOP Chairman...I will make a full statement on Monday."

The first and only African-American to hold the party's precinct chairmanship, Miller said he has been called "McCain's boy," and during the campaign saw a critic form his hand in the shape of a gun and point it at him.

"I wasn't going to resign but decided to quit after what happened Saturday," Miller said. "I love the Republican Party but I don't want to take a bullet for anyone."

After Miller's announcement, three other District 20 Republicans quit: newly-elected secretary Sophia Johnson, first vice chairman Roger Dickinson and former district spokesman Jeff Kolb, who said in an email, "This singular focus on 'getting' Anthony [Miller] was one of the main reasons I chose to resign."


Sarah Palin seems to suggest that she and the Tea Party Republicans have become victims along with Gabrielle Giffords and the others killed or wounded in Tucson shooting on Saturday.

If she is hoping for a more civil tone in these political debates then she should stop claiming victim-hood and tone down her own rhetorical style and encourage other Republicans to do the same.

She also carelessly and insensitively used the phrase "Blood Libel" which Jewish groups have called her out on.

Jewish Groups: ‘We Are Deeply Disturbed’ By Palin’s Use Of Anti-Semitic Term ‘Blood Libel,’ She Should Apologize" by Alex Seitz-Wald, Jan. 12, Think Progress

On a day when the president and the nation are mourning the victims of the tragic shooting in Tucson, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) is trying to seize the spotlight to mourn her tarnished reputation. Palin apparently views herself among the real victims of the tragic shooting this weekend that killed six and wounded 14. This morning, Palin launched an aggressive Facebook and web-video campaign to counter what she deemed a “blood libel” against her by the media to connect her infamous cross-hairs map and other right-wing incendiary rhetoric to violence.

Of all the terms Palin could have used, from “defamation” to even “implicating me in murder,” why did Palin choose “blood libel”? As the conservative National Review’s Jonah Goldberg, who says he “agree[s] entirely with…Palin’s, larger point,” notes, “Historically, the term is almost invariably used to describe anti-Semitic myths about how Jews use blood — usually from children — in their ritual.” Indeed, many Jews consider the term extremely offensive, and the Anti-Defamation League and other prominent Jewish organizations have spoken out against its use dozens of occasions in the past.


Indeed, Jewish groups are taking offense to Palin’s choice of the term. Noting that accusations of blood libel have been “directly responsible for the murder of so many Jews across centuries,” the National Jewish Democratic Council condemned Palin’s use of the term:

Instead of dialing down the rhetoric at this difficult moment, Sarah Palin chose to accuse others trying to sort out the meaning of this tragedy of somehow engaging in a “blood libel” against her and others. This is of course a particularly heinous term for American Jews, given that the repeated fiction of blood libels are directly responsible for the murder of so many Jews across centuries — and given that blood libels are so directly intertwined with deeply ingrained anti-Semitism around the globe, even today. [...]

All we had asked following this weekend’s tragedy was for prayers for the dead and wounded, and for all of us to take a step back and look inward to see how we can improve the tenor of our coarsening public debate. Sarah Palin’s invocation of a “blood libel” charge against her perceived enemies is hardly a step in the right direction.

Likewise, the president of the pro-Israel, pro-peace Jewish lobby J Street, Jeremy Ben-Ami, said he was “saddened by Governor Palin’s use of the term ‘blood libel,’” adding that he hopes “she will choose to retract her comment [and] apologize“:

The country’s attention is rightfully focused on the memorial service for the victims of Saturday’s shooting. Our prayers continue to be with those who are still fighting to recover and the families of the victims. The last thing the country needs now is for the rhetoric in the wake of this tragedy to return to where it was before.

We hope that Governor Palin will recognize, when it is brought to her attention, that the term “blood libel” brings back painful echoes of a very dark time in our communal history when Jews were falsely accused of committing heinous deeds. When Governor Palin learns that many Jews are pained by and take offense at the use of the term, we are sure that she will choose to retract her comment, apologize and make a less inflammatory choice of words.

Meanwhile, Simon Greer, the president of Jewish Funds for Justice, said he was “deeply disturbed” by Palin’s use of the term, arguing that she “failed to live up to her own standards” in a statement about using responsible rhetoric:

We are deeply disturbed by Fox News commentator Sarah Palin’s decision to characterize as a “blood libel” the criticism directed at her following the terrorist attack in Tucson. The term “blood libel” is not a synonym for “false accusation.” It refers to a specific falsehood perpetuated by Christians about Jews for centuries, a falsehood that motivated a good deal of anti-Jewish violence and discrimination. Unless someone has been accusing Ms. Palin of killing Christian babies and making matzoh from their blood, her use of the term is totally out-of-line. [...]

Ms. Palin clearly took some time to reflect before putting out her statement today. Despite that time, her primary conclusion was that she is the victim and Rep. Giffords is the perpetrator. As a powerful rhetorical advocate for personal responsibility, Ms. Palin has failed to live up to her own standards with this statement


and so it goes,
GORD.

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