I’m taking a break from my WaMo responsibilities. People around the house are demanding my attention (and ice cream). I think it was a bit of a hidden blessing that I’ve been buried in work all day. The biggest shooting massacre in our nation’s history? I honestly haven’t even read about it, yet, and it’s not something that’s going on my television while the youngster is awake.
Sorry to be absent at a time of such significance and sadness, but that’s how this day has gone.
There’s also this developing story from Los Angeles, where some nut job from Indiana was arrested, hours ahead of this morning’s Pride parade there, with enough weapons and (apparently) explosives to inflict at least as much damage as Orlando: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-gay-pride-la-weapons-20160612-snap-story.html
Along with the larger terrorism story and all the related issues (eg., the insanity of our nation’s gun laws), for those of us who’ve been on the front lines of LGBTQ rights struggles for a long time, it’s a stark reminder that for all the progress there are still plenty of people who hate us – usually for no better reason than their own suppressed yearnings and/or because their imaginary sky friend tells them to. This year’s Pride events will be somber. And joyful. And defiant.
it’s not something that’s going on my television while the youngster is awake
Good call, Booman.
On September 11, 2001, I was home with my 5 year old, as kindergarten was not going to start for another couple of days. Late morning, my wife called from work to ask if I had heard the news. Well, no, I’d been on the floor playing with the kiddo all morning. It wasn’t until my wife got home from work that I managed to turn on the TV.
We made a point of not trying to sanitize the world for our kid’s protection, but there are times when kids don’t need to hear about every horror, and times when the news junkie has to take a break.
Love your family. That’s the best thing we can do.
Maybe a little more love outside the family might be even better1 I suppose that goes only for people without a family. Close-mindedness.
Emulating Dutch politician Geert Wilders, Donald Trump was sunning in the pool of hate and terror of Orlando shooting. SHAME!
Perpetual motion of terror and Islamophobia, war and blowback. On France24 some idiot from Orlando by the name of Tom Harb was interviewed … ME background, anti Obama, pro-Trump … most likely from Lebanese Maronite descent. Nice!
herr trump is not as popular in france as the media would have you believe oui.
ht to bored panda.
I’ve also had a busy weekend of work. I’m in the process of moving in with the gf down in SC, all the while its at the end of the quarter and I’m under a review period to see if I’ll be promoted to GS-14. This has meant a lot of extra voluntary overtime to make sure my work is pristine. Who knows how successful I’ll be.
I’ve mostly tried to tune out the news today. I was a freshmen at VA Tech the year of that massacre. And I know nothing will change. Best thing we can do is for citizens to have a change of consciousness, and voluntarily disarm.
I remember back in the ’60s when my GS-13 boss was having trouble getting a 14 at headquarters. He’d grumble, “You have to have your brains half shot out to get a 14 in Washington. If your brains are ALL shot out, you can get a 15 in Washington”.
Remember the caveat “in Washington”, not SC. Best of luck on the promotion.
I listen to NPR sparingly but like it more on the weekends. Had to turn to classic music station, as they began non-stop “coverage” of the terrible event in Orlando at 9 am PDT. I listened to the first 5 min and turned it off. What’s the point of such ghoulish and utterly useless speculations? Dumb. If people want that kind of breathless fact-free not-reporting, then turn on Fox. Oh, I forgot, NPR uses Fox “reporters.”
Very sorry to learn about this. Of course, the media is definitely trying to gin it up as a terrorist attack by ISIS before anyone knows anything. Apparently the ex-wife of the shooter said he was very unstable, and the father said the son had “issues” with gays. So yeah, it’s all about ISIS… probably not.
Of course, it will NEVER be a time to discuss rational gun owner regulations because that would be “politicizing” this event.
Even it does turn out somehow to be associated with ISIS, this American born man had far too easy access to assualt weapons. THAT is the story, but it won’t be highlighted or discussed rationally.
Peace to all. I’m staying far away from my radio and don’t own a tv. Advise others to stay away from the media today. We’ll find out soon enough what’s what.
You write:
But it is “about” ISIS, even if it’s not in a direct line. ISIS…and radical Islam…exist. This is an undeniable fact. And people who are involved in those movements are both horrifyingly violent and using that violence to get what they want. This is undeniable as well. This fool? This Florida shooter? “ISIS/radical Islam” serve as his excuse. He’s just a batshit crazy motherfucker with Middle Eastern relatives. There are always these kinds of people in societies, all across the world. Successful societies either find a controlled use for them…in the military, as police…or imprison/execute them. We are no longer a successful society. We have no culture that reroutes these people. In fact, we now have a culture that drives them even crazier from the get-go…a culture that glorifies violence from the crib. I really don’t know if that culture can be changed. It may be too late. Too many generations of violent media; too many horrifically unstable people.
“Unstable”…that’s the word that people who knew him seem to be using, and it’s a good word to use for people like this. They are unstable in an unstable society, so they are more liable to eventually act out.
Solution?
Change the culture. It’s not about firearms, it’s about the glorification of violence up and down the system. How to change that culture? It has to come from the top, and that is not about to happen because there is no longer any moral weight…like religion…pulling in the opposite direction. There’s just money. The monetization of morality. “Relative” morality. If we do it, it’s good; if our enemies do it, it’s bad.
It’s also good if it makes money. We have role models like Kanye West openly bragging about how much money they made as dealers of truly poisonous drugs. We have amazingly profitable movies, TV shows and video games that are about nothing but excused violence. We fight wars for profit that kill millions and glorify that violence. And then we’re shocked at the endless, mindless violence that we are seeing in the society?
Get real.
We’ve earned it.
AG
This is a despicable, hateful post.
Explain yourself, Jordan. How so?
AG
Because you’re advancing reactionary, right-wing arguments. You’re looking at a mass shooting in a gay nightclub by a man using a semi-automatic firearm and saying it’s not about gays or firearms (or bans on semi-automatics, like the ones Obama has advanced that have been blocked by the Republican congress) and saying that we’re looking at cultural problems; that the society has a violent ethos of some kind and that this is the place to be directing our scrutiny rather than at handgun regulation or automatic rifle regulation or the marginalization of gay culture and gay identity or candidates using incendiary rhetoric. It’s a classic right-wing “blame the victim” argument, like when Bob Dole complained about violent movies or when anyone complains about video games; passing the buck onto the general public. Extra points for the Tipper Gore touch of marginalizing Kanye West.
Bullshit.
I am not “blaming the victim(s),” I am saying that we are all victims of the .01%’s monetization of morality.
It is not about “gays and firearms” any more that were the Oklahoma City bombing or the Boston Marathon massacre, neither of which had anything to do with sexual preference or the easy availability of firearms. It’s about crazy motherfuckers who think that they have an excuse to murder people because…because “That’s what ‘everybody’ does!!!” as far as their own cultural experience is concerned.
The U.S. can do it in Nicaragua, in Vietnam, in Korea and in Iraq. The culture in which they grow up glorifies righteous murder. Why should they be any different?
This is by no means a “reactionary, right-wing argument.” It is rather, a truly revolutionary idea. Change the culture…from the top if necessary…and you change the violence.
WTFU.
Get our asses out of the murderous economic imperialism game; change the way the culture presents so-called “heroism,” and you change everything.
It is so far left that those who have advocated such things…religiously influenced pacifists, from Jesus Christ right on through Gandhi and MLK Jr…have paid for their ideas with their lives.
Wake the fuck up.
Stupid, stupid kneejerk, PC leftinesses!!!
AG
I’ve made my position clear and I stand by it. I hold your ideas in very low regard. (And I’m fully awake.)
You have no “position” in this case other than a kneejerk leftiness so-called position that refuses to think outside of the neoliberal box.
Thjis is where it really lays.
Bet on it.
AG
P.S. But don’t feel bad, JO. You are hardly alone.
Jim Wright once again must update and repost what he said after the Aurora massacre:
http://www.stonekettle.com/2012/07/the-seven-stages-of-gun-violence.html
The only question; what does someone need an assault weapon for? The answer: to assault someone. No media dumbass dares ask such a basic question. Talking about bullies: NRA.
‘President Obama has now delivered 15 post-mass shooting addresses to the nation. Almost every time he asks us to make gun control an election issue’, Tom H. Hastings, Counterpunch today. That sounds about right. Trump and Clinton would do well to get their staff writing a bunch of such statements which can be chosen according to the different circumstances because they’re not getting serious about gun control either. Sound cynical? Well now, tell if I’m more cynical than the NRA and the U.S. Congress. Maybe they’re just hypocrites while having the best interests of the nation at heart. Kill me a deer, kill me a person. They’re full of shit.
Over at Joe. My. God. one commenter calling himself Ben in Oakland had this to say:
http://www.joemygod.com/2016/06/13/father-of-orlando-terrorist-he-should-have-left-punishing-those-h
omosexuals-to-god-himself-video/#comment-2727990710
Thanks for that quote. I happen not to be gay, but this man expresses so much of what I feel – as someone with many close LGBT friends and some family members. It’s gotten way beyond the point where so-called “Christians” – I refuse to identify myself as a “Christian” anymore bc I cannot stand how debased these people are anymore & how hypocritical & how nasty and hateful – have a leg to stand on.
Beating the drum against Islam is just a dodge. The “Christian” religion in this country is a moral sink hole. They should all be hanging their heads in shame for how this incident – and many others – came about. Much of it can be laid at the feet of amoral religionists who use their “flocks” as ATMs, sowing seeds of hatred, fear, negativity, sexism, homophobia, violence and disgust.
Had US Marine stickers on his car “Semper Fi” and wanted to join the police force …. see selfies with NYPD shirts. He too was paternalistic, authoritarian beating his wife, brought in from a dating site as a bride from Uzbekistan.
Bought just last week, Omar Mateen obtained his weapons legally as he had been screened by FBI in 2013 en 2014 and Omar worked as a security guard for G4S. Recall the organization from the London Olympics – G4S failures prompt further military deployment .
Cross-posted from my new diary – Omar Mateen: A U.S. Patriot Gone Astray .
Of course, radical Islamophobe Donald Trump exploits the radical Islam theme and calls for president Obama to resign … gainng the hearts and minds of hard-working Americans!
enjoy time with the family unit.
AG channels Malcolm X about chickens coming home to roost. AG writes that “[w]e’ve earned it”.
janicket tells us about religious haters and their version of chickens coming home to roost: preachers of one stripe or another saying to LGBT folks that you’ve earned it.
oui writes about “blowback”.
Donald Trump rails about Islamic terrorism.
It feels to me as if all these folks are just reading from a rehearsed script. The particulars of the killer’s identity and background, his mental state, his life history, how he chose his target, and on and on and on…all those particulars, which I expect will be sleuthed out in due order by the cops and FBI, don’t matter to AG or to janicket or to oui or to Trump.
Because they’ve all got scripts. They’ve all get pre-packaged, one-size-fits-all explanations.
I think we could do with fewer scripts and a bit more modesty and openness.