GunsAreCool, the effing obvious no. n - 1.

Christopher Ingraham has caused a stir with a post on his “wonk blog” citing the work of other wonks, the moderators of the satirically-named subreddit GunsAreCool, who have shown that we are “averaging more than one mass shooting per day in 2015.” The numbers at the time of Ingraham’s writing: “By August 26, the 238th day of the year, the number of mass shootings has risen to 247 for the year.” (These are summarized in the table from the article below.) GunsAreCool’s definition of “mass shooting” - “any single incident in which at least four people are shot.”

Shot with guns! Let us repeat the effing obvious until the effing oblivious get it: people are shot – and maimed or killed – with guns!

     Between August 1 and November 30 of 2014, with a grant from the Grant Grant Foundation, Go Around Back sent out for free distribution to book stores, convenience stores, tattoo parlors, independently-owned garages, and (yes) gun shops in every city, county, township, or town in which there have been mass shootings – from Albuquerque to Fort Wayne to Barre, VT; from Holly Hill, SC to St. Louis to Moscow, ID, from Fresno to Omaha to Ybor City, FL – 8000 copies of the first English (Grove Press) edition of Waiting for Godot. And to date no one has been maimed or killed by the book. Of course, it's a paperback. And the ratio of hand guns to Godot* is in the order of 100 to 1.

Here is the aforementioned table and three links:

Ingraham’s article is here, at washingtonpost.com.

The subreddit GunsAreCool is here - keep up on the mayhem - and its up-to-date list of shootings with links to news coverage here.

_______________

 *all copies, all editions.

Temple destroyed, scholar beheaded.

The truth of the matter: this ISIS is not an army of God;
it is a hideous swarm of monsters.

Friday night in Iowa.

Trump - OUR last word!

On August 19 in his Plum Line Opinion, "The circular logic behind media coverage of the Hillary Clinton email story," Paul Waldman wrote that it is one “that jumps back on to the front pages whenever there’s some new development, whether it’s truly meaningful or not. . . .[W]e’re reaching the point where a circular logic is taking over: the story is a story because it’s a story, and therefore we need to keep talking about it because it’s a story.”

   So it is with everything about Donald Trump. Please, Media, move along; there’s nothing to see here.

It’s month to month.

July 21. Inverness, FL: Owner Andy Hallinan declares his Florida gun shop a “Muslim-free zone,” saying, “I will not arm and train those who wish to do harm to my fellow patriots.”

August 20. Three blocks from home: Aqib Nawaz declares his convenience store a “Southern Baptist-free zone,” saying, “ I will not sell smokes or smokeless to anyone that believes Jesus was white.”

No deal!*

Separated at birth: Chuck Schumer & Sheldon Adelson.

*Translation (unfortunately): Nukes for Iran
sooner instead of later - or, maybe, not at all.

Education governor now education candidate.

Last month Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed his name (in cursive) to a state budget that cut funding for the University of Wisconsin by $250 million. The budget also cut funding for most K-12 school districts. It approved public funds for more vouchers for tuition at private and religious schools and created a new “special needs” voucher that actually cuts into protections for special needs students.

Thirty-five school principals (with identical handwriting) have written the oblivious to the obvious Walker that his education budget is hurting their schools.

For a picture of Walker with his Marquette diploma, see here. For a fuller account and a copy of the principals’ letter, see this article in the Washington Post online by Valerie Strauss.

EFFING obvious

This is a handgun. No even marginally insane person
should own one. No one is completely sane.

Current case in point: Shawn Fuller of Statesville, NC, goes to the local cash-and-carry, expounds on the need for open-carry. (According to the clerk, Fuller said he “wouldn’t shop anywhere he couldn’t bring his gun.”) He brought it home, shot his two sons, Uriah (4) and Josiah (3), then tried to shoot himself. If he pulls through, he faces first-degree murder charges.

     No one was killed this week with a three-ring binder.

Hmmmmm.

My news fast (See here.) means that I am experiencing the Republican melee/debate second-hand. From that perspective, here is one of those things that makes you wanna go hmmmmm.

As I understand it:

     Megyn Kelly effectively accuses Donald Trump of being part of the war on women. And we’re surprised? Trump goes to war on Megan Kelly, “blood coming out of her wherever.” Are we surprised?

Hmmmmm.

It gets worse:

     Are we surprised at this (->)? Katie Gage, a GOP political consultant (Mitt Romney’s deputy campaign manager in 2012) says she is not surprised at Trump’s misogyny. The comment on Kelly was “completely in character.” But Gage goes on to say, “What’s new is he picked on somebody who is beloved by conservative voters.” Like, if he had said that about your sister and she didn’t work for Fox News, it wouldn't have counted.

                                                              Does make you wanna go
                                                              hmmmmm.

The effing obvious continues

I return from a psychiatrist-recommended one-week news fast to find nothing has changed.

Wayne LaPierre addresses the

American people: "Point One . . . "

August 8, Berlin, VT – Three women found dead
in a Vermont home, at least two of them apparent-
ly shot by another woman, Jody Herring, who also shot a state social worker the previous day. All shootings were done with a gun.

August 9, Houston, TX – Houston man, David Conley, kills six children, two adults . . . with a
gun.

August 10, Ferguson, MO – Police shoot and critically injure a man accused of opening fire during “anniversary protests.” The man opened fire with a gun. The police shot him with a gun.

No one was shot by either a pocket knife or a flashlight.

But I don't mean to offend ANYone!