Whereof I am commander,
With a burning spear and a horse of air,
To the wilderness I wander.
By a knight of ghosts and shadows
I summoned am to tourney
Ten leagues beyond the wide world's end:
Methinks it is no journey.
-Tom O'Bedlam-
America's already tenuous grasp on reality is constantly being tested and we are constantly failing that test while moving ever closer to hysterical fugue. Hark, hark, the Trump does bark and the outrage peddlers have driven us mad
Modern awareness contains a galaxy of causes: some real, some imaginary and most are struggling for attention over all the others by ginning up outrage and pulling us into one dark circus tent or another. Reality makes us fear, but the game is in fantasy outrage and a thousand pipers whistle their tune for us all to follow -- and so we do.
The NRA is a very skilled user of outrage, having convinced millions of people that the major objective of ever politician who doesn't march to their piper is a demon out to get your guns. They have little to do with having created America's traditional love affair with weapons, but they have made firearms into a fetish, a flag, a symbol of all our dreams of liberty. Some simply can't conceive of being a free country without unlimited access to firearms. It's a religion of sorts and nothing fires up the imbecile like threatening his religion. It works.
What politician doesn't wish he could enlist the outrage of the masses to make himself the hero, the Hercules, the Sampson, the Gilgamesh who can lead us to vote for him and protect us from every enemy his imagination can conceive of?
Enter Donald Trump, or adventavit Asinus if you prefer. Obama is going to grab your guns he says - the same thing his party's bilge rats have been squeaking since he first ran for office. Some of us watch aghast as he says things designed to attract the confused and angry and focus their power with his daily outrages. In fact he can predict things that never happen, he can demonstrate total ignorance of things that are all important for an American president but none of it matters to those all in a perpetual rage against all those who seek to grab their guns. It doesn't matter that no one has yet tried, just as it doesn't matter than prophets have warned us of impending apocalypse since the dawn of politics. Every tomorrow is the end of days and any Democrat is the end of your guns and you can certainly fool enough of those good folks all the time. It doesn't matter than there was no secret hidden in Obama's birth certificate or that any of his claims to secrets have come to nothing. It's all about the guns. No one ever went broke predicting the Gungrabber Apocalypse.
So are you surprised that that immigrant-bashing grandson son of immigrants is warning us of an imminent executive order by the Devil Obama to grab your guns? Illegal, can't be done, won't be done, but it's not about reality and never was. No politician has a good chance of winning anything if he's seen as a gungrabber and any accusation is as good as a death sentence to anyone challenging the Dark Knight, the NRA..
I wonder if Hillary has grown so arrogant as to ignore this, with suggestions of Federal buybacks, the kind of program that's been a waste of time up until now, or a promise to "go after" manufacturers whose legal products are used illegally - something she should know has no legal grounds.
But of course there's that outrage addiction on the other side too and perhaps she thinks she will be seen as a savior for the real phobics and magic thinkers who somehow claim they're liberals and aren't interested in compromise or in restricting legislation to the possible and rational.
So does this last gungrabber plot prediction suggest Trump is running out of fake outrages and is now at the bottom of the barrell? Could be, but do we want to bet on it? Are you feeling lucky?
America's already tenuous grasp on reality is constantly being tested and we are constantly failing that test while moving ever closer to hysterical fugue. Hark, hark, the Trump does bark and the outrage peddlers have driven us mad
Modern awareness contains a galaxy of causes: some real, some imaginary and most are struggling for attention over all the others by ginning up outrage and pulling us into one dark circus tent or another. Reality makes us fear, but the game is in fantasy outrage and a thousand pipers whistle their tune for us all to follow -- and so we do.
The NRA is a very skilled user of outrage, having convinced millions of people that the major objective of ever politician who doesn't march to their piper is a demon out to get your guns. They have little to do with having created America's traditional love affair with weapons, but they have made firearms into a fetish, a flag, a symbol of all our dreams of liberty. Some simply can't conceive of being a free country without unlimited access to firearms. It's a religion of sorts and nothing fires up the imbecile like threatening his religion. It works.
What politician doesn't wish he could enlist the outrage of the masses to make himself the hero, the Hercules, the Sampson, the Gilgamesh who can lead us to vote for him and protect us from every enemy his imagination can conceive of?
Enter Donald Trump, or adventavit Asinus if you prefer. Obama is going to grab your guns he says - the same thing his party's bilge rats have been squeaking since he first ran for office. Some of us watch aghast as he says things designed to attract the confused and angry and focus their power with his daily outrages. In fact he can predict things that never happen, he can demonstrate total ignorance of things that are all important for an American president but none of it matters to those all in a perpetual rage against all those who seek to grab their guns. It doesn't matter that no one has yet tried, just as it doesn't matter than prophets have warned us of impending apocalypse since the dawn of politics. Every tomorrow is the end of days and any Democrat is the end of your guns and you can certainly fool enough of those good folks all the time. It doesn't matter than there was no secret hidden in Obama's birth certificate or that any of his claims to secrets have come to nothing. It's all about the guns. No one ever went broke predicting the Gungrabber Apocalypse.
So are you surprised that that immigrant-bashing grandson son of immigrants is warning us of an imminent executive order by the Devil Obama to grab your guns? Illegal, can't be done, won't be done, but it's not about reality and never was. No politician has a good chance of winning anything if he's seen as a gungrabber and any accusation is as good as a death sentence to anyone challenging the Dark Knight, the NRA..
I wonder if Hillary has grown so arrogant as to ignore this, with suggestions of Federal buybacks, the kind of program that's been a waste of time up until now, or a promise to "go after" manufacturers whose legal products are used illegally - something she should know has no legal grounds.
But of course there's that outrage addiction on the other side too and perhaps she thinks she will be seen as a savior for the real phobics and magic thinkers who somehow claim they're liberals and aren't interested in compromise or in restricting legislation to the possible and rational.
So does this last gungrabber plot prediction suggest Trump is running out of fake outrages and is now at the bottom of the barrell? Could be, but do we want to bet on it? Are you feeling lucky?
Gun Deaths by State (per 100,000 people, includes homicides, suicides, accidental gun deaths, and legal intervention requiring use of firearms), 2013:
ReplyDeleteFive States with least deaths:
HI – 2.6
MA – 3.1
NY – 4.2
CT – 4.4
RI – 5.3
Five States with most deaths:
AR – 16.8
AL – 17.6
MS – 17.8
LA – 19.3
AK – 19.8
What sets apart those states with the LEAST gun deaths from those states with the MOST gun deaths? This …
Permit required to purchase a gun:
YES (in HI, MA, NY, and CT);
NO (in AR, AL, MS, LA and AK).
Universal background checks required:
YES (in HI, MA, NY, CT and RI);
NO (in AR, AL, MS, LA and AK).
States with a “stand-your-ground” law:
NO (in HI, MA, NY, CT and RI);
YES (in AR, AL, MS, LA and AK).
Ease of obtaining an “open-carry” permit:
DIFFICULT or PROHIBITED (in HI, MA, NY, CT and RI);
NO PERMIT REQUIRED (in AL, MS, LA and AK).
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
And the Kaiser Family Foundation
Note: These above data are correlations, not inferences regarding causation. Form your own conclusions.
More data: Homicide rates per million people:
Australia – 1.4
New Zealand – 1.6
Germany – 1.9
Austria – 2.2
Denmark – 2.7
Netherlands – 3.3
Sweden – 4.1
Canada – 5.1
United States – 29.7
World Population: United States (4.43%)
Civilian-Owned Guns (Worldwide): United States (42%)
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete(Second try to correct some typos)
ReplyDeleteStatistics that consider only one variable can mean what you want them to. Testaments to the results of different laws need to examine the before and after condition. Looking at states where differences in homicide rates are ten thousand to one depending on precinct or county can be misleading. It's kind of like drowning in a lake where the average depth is 2 inches. You need to look at that 50 foot hole. Look for instance at
El Paso Vs Chicago and you'll see that unmentioned factors dominate there.
It's quite possible that the safe states contain dangerous cities, and in fact they do. And you'd need to look at all those states anyway, taking the most this and the least that tends to make selected variables seem like the only variables.
The demographics are a bit different in Alabama than in Massachusetts - to say the least. Not as many 5th grade dropout crankheads in Boston, for one thing. But all this is moot in terms of what I'm writing about which is the power dozens of outrage based pressure groups manipulate public opinion, not about gun control, it's about how we assess danger and risk which is 100% emotionally driven, it's about how we are presented with planned, choreographed and strategic outrages by one organization or party or action group in a carefully sequenced manner corresponding to a program or agenda.. We're told what to be furious about and how to react and what to do and what to chant as we march down the street with torches and pitchforks and carrying signs pre-printed weeks in advance.
Do we really care about child welfare and neglect and abuse? Hell no and we don't spend much either. Do we care about police abuse of American Indians or Hispanics? That's my focus here. It has nothing to do with guns but to the way we are jerked around like puppets. We ignore things that kill millions and run around screeching Benghazi, Benghazi. This month is police brutality and we'll here a thousand examples, some real some invented. Next month it's school shootings, and the one after it will be the War on Christians. All come complete with selected examples, gerrymandered facts and fabrications. All provide a list of terminology and of words we may not use -- with preprinted signs and press releases and more. Not relevant to MADD or the NRA or anyone else? Well forget about it because America has already ruled against you.
But above all, be angry, be furious, be outraged - otherwise you might see what's going on.
ReplyDelete