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Until these shootings are recognized for what they are -- a deadly symptom of the fact we are subjects of the most viciously oppressive nation in the industrial world -- nothing (especially the forcible disarmament of legal firearms owners), will ever stop the carnage.
Indeed, forcible disarmament (and its reduction of the 99 Percent to mandatory pacifism and thus to compulsory victimhood), will only intensify our oppression -- which is precisely why the One Percent has methodically destroyed the mental health services that are indisputably the best option for preventing such atrocities. But as long as we remain blind to these realities of class struggle, the resultant mental paralysis furthers the One Percent's long-range intent: reduction of all the rest of us to abject slavery.
And how remarkably convenient this newest mass shooting is for the entire Ruling Class, happening at the onset of the newest debt-ceiling charade, with the Obama Administration (again) preparing to (again) betray lower income people -- especially those of us dependent on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and food stamps. In this context, because the shooting will not only rule the headlines but focus the pseudo-Left's energy into another frenzy of anti-gunowner fanaticism, it's the perfect red herring. Wake up! See how this atrocity is already being used to further the One Percent's agenda.
As for the evil cited by Dr. Orlowski, it seems neither he nor any other public figure dare call it by its real name: capitalism -- specifically its Ayn Rand credo of infinite selfishness elevated to ultimate virtue -- the reversal of every principle of humanistic morality ever posited and therefore our species' all-time nadir of moral imbecility.
What is "the evil in our society"? What society? Since Reagan and Thatcher, we have been moving towards a Randian Utopia where it's every man for himself and the Devil take the hindmost. Thatcher's philosophy was that "there is no such thing as society". I think that was her way of saying "I got mine. The rest of you can take a flying leap." It's a philosophy very dear to the 1%. This sentiment heaps bucketloads of scorn and abuse on those not fortunate enough to be born to wealthy, educated and connected parents. It is pure class warfare of the worst kind. Those left behind by our selfish culture, are understandably frustrated and angry. If the person has access to a firearm when they get to a tipping point, this is the very predictable result. Unfortunately, we are all complicit in this. We have continued to vote for politicians who espouse the most anti-social policies the 1% can dream up. The Tea Party are the extreme tip of this phenomenon, but it stretches right back to and through the Republicans and Democrats as well. If we want a civil society where we can be safe, we have to vote for that and stop drinking the Kool-Aid supplied by the 1% class warriors.
Because our government will kill us.
When you adress our Fascist government I'll give up my guns. We have no choice but to hang on tightly to our weapons. Our government is corrupted to no end. Money and government have an agenda, and it aint too fluffy and cuddley.So Doc shut the hell up until you can give us a guarantee our government wont herd us and kill us. They probably got you to make this statement. Like the devils that used sandy hook as a gun control platform. No human connection for these kind of people.Just dead souls doing the bidding of others.
Dont dare come for my guns until something good and possitive has been done to remove the corrupt devils.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/17/aaron-alexis-heard-voices_n_3940187.html
I'm glad guns don't kill people. Think of how bad each of the massacres, which we keep having, would be if they did.
Remember: "Guns don't kill people. People kill people."
Quite frankly, I'd rather be hit over the head with a board than have a person point a gun at me. Imagine a world where guns are not so easily available to everyone who wants to kill people? It does exist, just not in this country.
I lived overseas for 9 years and all my local friends couldn't understand why we can't pass some decent gun laws to prevent regular events like this. We are the laughing stock of the world for our attachment to guns. "Bowling for Columbine" by Michael Moore tells it all.
Hans-Henning Muendel ~ Thank you for confirming my suspicion. That was a very helpful tidbit of info. I wish your daughter and her fiance my best.
As long as we ignore the mentally ill There will be many senseless killings. Then again many kill out of rage or despair, Hate crimes are too common .We must limit sale of high capacity mazines that can kill 20-30 people in few seconds. NO hunter needs that to kill a deer. If so he is a very poor shot..
Geraldine Rieman ~ I think you hit the nail on the head. Obviously this man was suffering from issues. There is no sane motive to murder strangers at random. It is true that our culture helps to foster these tragedies; but, like you said the culture hasn't changed that much since Ronald Wilson (666) Reagan closed mental institutions. What has changed is that before Reagan's term mass shootings were unheard of. Go figure.
We need to address the root cause of this problem. Gun control alone won't work. We need to demand Medicare for all. Public funded health care including mental health. The wealthy don't want to bring back publicly funded mental institutions because they fear that it will lead to publicly funded health care and ruin their high rolling insurance corporations. We need to regain these institutions through the back door by demanding publicly funded health care first. The mental institutions will logically then follow.
In this case this reservist had access to VA benefits and still managed to fly under the wire. I wonder who dropped the ball in this case. There is no excuse. Too many of our vets are denied benefits in order to save the Pentagon money. It's truly tragic. I can't believe that he suddenly snapped without any warning signs. Usually, mass murder or suicide is the last cry for help; not, the first.
Aside from your item here, Thom, and various newspaper reports and TV coverage of this horrific event, this morning I also listened to Sirius XM Progress - not sure who was hosting: and one item I have NOT heard anyone mentioning: with Aaron Alexis, the shooter, having heard voices compelling him to do harm to others (in the past), aside from paranoia, he may be schizophrenic - and thus with proper medication (which might take years to work out: I am the father of a schizophrenic daughter and her schizophrenic fiance: who both heard scary voices for years) might have been helped to lead a more 'normal' life, even if never completely free of concern.
I think Aaron 'fell through the cracks' in whatever medical system you have in the state(s) he lived in. I am in Canada, as are my above-mentioned relatives, who belong to a local chapter of the Schizophrenia Society, which have many support-group activities; and we belong to the relatives-support group.
The mentally ill used to be in institutions, not out on the streets with medication. The jails are full of mentally ill people.
To understand why "Violence is as American as cherry pie" (as Mark Saulys appropriately quotes H. Rap Brown), we need to consider the building blocks from which our country was forged.
First there was the genocide of Native Americans so we could take over their land.The importation of Black slaves came next, to do the work necessary to build the "Land of the Free" where "all men are created equal." Then there was the exploitation of the poor whites from Europe who came here seeking a better life.
Consider our history of warfare. Since the inception of the United States of America we have been at war for almost 90% of our existence! (See http://jaxonbrooks.com/post/6799918865/trending-america-has-been-at-war-for-209-of-235-years)
It is no wonder that we are a violent nation because we have never been anything but. The solution? The United States of America needs to go through a twelve-step program, especially the part that requires making amends for prior errors. This would be a start to healing our violent national nature and maybe, just maybe forge a beginning to "form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, (and) insure domestic Tranquility..." Will this ever happen? HAH!
But it is America, it's the American way. "Violence is as American as cherry pie", to quote H. Rap Brown.
It's the new American way, anyway. Our society has become thoughtless and wantonly nasty. Much like Columbine first made us aware of bullying we should be mindful that there's a lot of gratuitous bullying going on EVERYWHERE in society now, not only in high school. In fact, people are, these times, keeping an adolescant mentality permanently so we now never leave high school anymore. What we are seeing is a lot of Columbines repeated.
I've noted you are referring to Wayne LoPierre as Wayne LowPeter. I love the new name.
I refer to the current crop of republicans in DC as republicanderthals and I've been unfriended twice on Facebook because of this. Oh, well.
I also refer to Reince Priebus as Rinse Pubis. It seems to fit his personality. Most people don't get it, though, because they don't know who he is.
We have to say, Hey Wacky Wayne LaPierre, Where is the good guy with the gun to stop this idiot. This is one thing we have to think about, if everybody had a gun, or if every other person had a gun. How many O.K. Corral shootouts type will we have then.
Palindromedary ~ Not to worry, my friend. Being an outsider uniquely qualifies you to make that observation. You judge the action and not the appearance of Christians. "You will know them by their works." Not by their names.
As far as your conclusion is concerned... I totally agree. From the inside you would be surprised how many church going "Christians" I've met who don't even know Christ taught to "Love your enemy's."
A lot of people can't seem to wrap their head around that one. They look at the crusades instead of the New Testament and conclude 'Christ was a son of God who wants us to kill Muslims to go to heaven.' As though God himself can't kill anyone he/she wants.
How easy is it for some people to let themselves be fooled into a cult mentality and let someone else do all their thinking for them? How easy? Oh, thats right we were just talking about that subject. The Milgram and Zimbardo experiments. The Government knows exactly how easy it is.
On an aside, nowhere in the Bible does Christ say that Muslims, gays, atheist or anyone else you can think of is evil and should be attacked. The worst thing he said to do is that if people disagree with you, leave them alone. Hardly something Christian missionaries ever emulated. Don't try telling that to a typical "Christian." Typical "Christians" need to be spoon fed Christianity slowly one bite at a time. They don't chew well and choke if they get too much at once.
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Yes I know we are all going to die. But before that all the ponds and lakes will fill up to normal levels again like they have been doing for millions of years and all this global warming stuff will fade away just like it did in the 70's when we where going to all freeze to death because of global cooling or the eighties when we where all going to burn to death because of the hole in the Ozone layer. I have been there done that to many times to buy into it again.
Every generation has to protest something I guess
Man in recovery from addiction will be flat to trials all through their expedition that may stab to derail their sensation.
Insurance for rehab
Geo engineering is a facinating subject that joins a lot of dots. Weather man-ipulation is making some companies a lot of money.
It's really too bad this storm harmed so many people and ruined so many houses. And yes, with our republican friends doing all they can to destroy this entire planet and pull our weather systems out of homeostasis, we can count on this kind of thing becoming the norm rather than unusual, so really it's best for people to not live in flood plains.
And we can count on Pat Robertson continuing to blame the weather disturbances on God's hatred of gays, but the truth of the matter is that God has changed our weather because He hates Pat Robertson- I know this because Mr. Twain told me so.
Anyway, there's another very good reason to not live in flood plains: the flood plains get lots of pollutants from upriver:
1. Endocrine-disrupting weed poisons and neurotoxic insect poisons that wash into the river from lawns and farms, and when the river floods downriver properties, they get the poisonous chemicals from upriver;
2. E-coli and other bacteria and diseases from upriver chicken, pig, dairy, or cattle farms, and then very dangerously pollute downriver land that gets flooded;
3. Raw sewage from upriver sewage treatments plants that are overloaded by storms because misguided city planners put in combined sewage/storm systems, and because most sewage treatment plants are designed to dump raw sewage into rivers when they get overloaded by heavy rains.
My dad had a property on a river. It flooded, and for years the entire property stank- I mean, it reeked like you would not believe- of raw sewage and insect poisons. A friend had a property and a trailer on a flood plain, and after heavy rains, his trailer washed away and his property is now in the middle of the river. So of course he then went and bought another property, on a different flood plain, and built a barn on it. He said the price was right...
Events like these serve as a reminder that man is not as powerful as he thinks he is. The problem with the climate-change folks on the left is that they weight the argument on the side of man being the factor driving the changes. Yes man is a factor in the ecosphere, but he is not the dominant factor. Does that mean I am all for polluting? No, in point of fact I do not own a car, ride a bicycle, am vegetarian work in high efficiency low impact energy systems, and recycle. But I recognize the fact that data is regularly manipulated by both sides in order to get what they want: money, power or both. We have made great strides to improve the efficiency of our society, and the answer lies not in going back to the stone age, but to forge ahead by fully understanding our world and make the needed changes to improve as discoveries are made. But we must do this in a manner that continues the improved efficiency of society, not make arbitrary rules that cripple progress for the sake of insignificant 'improvement'.