Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Keep your prayers.

       In horror we watched another terrorist attack. At this point we don't know who is responsible or why. The why will never make sense. Killing innocent people never makes sense. Just please, people, stop with "my prayers go out to them". "We pray for their families." Save your breath! I you really want to help stop praying and do something worthwhile! Please.

       Stop for a minute and think that the attack may be religiously motivated. So many are. Someone intent on seeing his 73 virgins in heaven killing in the name of some imaginary being. So pray to your imaginary being too? Sure, pray for the parents who have to bury a child for help from god. Where was that god when the bomb went off and took an 8 year old's life?

      I heard one woman on the news saying that a runner she was waiting for had leg and feet craps that forced her to stop. Had she not she would have been where the bombs went off. The woman was sure it was divine intervention. God gave her cramps so she might live. I suppose he put the child close to the bomb so he wouldn't. People can't you see the total insanity here?

      It's insane that in 2013 superstition and belief in creation myths still is major cause of violence and strife in our world. Would anyone give a rats ass about Jerusalem if not for religion? It's a fucking desert! Yet peace will never come there until reason prevails.

      Stop the praying. Pick up a book about science and read it. Question things. I'm sick of the faith. Why is it a virtue to accept things you'd otherwise laugh at? Faith is nothing more than rejecting reason. There is no way you'd believe me if I told you that I could high jump 30 feet. Yet someone born to a virgin who rises from the dead makes sense to you. Only if you are brainwashed to believe it from birth and you turn off your ability to think. If you were born somewhere else and brainwashed by someone else you might strap a bomb to your chest to die for god.

       Praying will do no good. You're whispering to a myth. Blind faith will not help anybody and the stubborn belief that god wants you to do this or that only hurts. Want to help? Reach out to someone who needs help and help them. Don't do it because you want to go some place when you die. Do it because this is where we live now and it's all you get. Try to engage in some rational thought and help to spread it. The people who wrote the bible also believed the earth was flat and if you sailed too far you fell off the edge. They believed sun circled the earth. Why would you take seriously anything they wrote?

      If you think praying will solve anything you're a deluded as the people who flew the planes into the Trade Towers. You think they are crazy because they believe in a different god, different ways of living and a different heaven. Crazy is crazy no matter where you're born.

    






Friday, February 1, 2013

I hate the NRA.

I hate gun nuts and the NRA. Yes, hate them.

If anyone thinks the NRA speaks for anyone other than gun manufacturers they are crazy. The NRA has more blood on their hands than Bin Laden. You read that right. How many gun death are there in the US every year? 30,000. Can we get any kind of sensible gun legislation passed? Not with the NRA pressuring the spineless politicians and stoking fear into the dim witted. I'll agree with the NRA (National Reactionaries Association) on one thing. Banning assault weapons will do little. Why? Because thanks to the NRA they're already out there. If it were up to me they would be removed from society. There would be a buy back program for two years. After that it's a felony to own one.

Now we have these assholes who think that they need them to protect themselves from tyranny. From our own government! That's crazy on so many levels I don't know where to start! First of all our government is US! It's our friends and neighbors we elect. They are not tyrants who inherited a throne. There was no coup d'etat. Of the people, by the people, for the people.

The military is us. More so than the government! It's volunteers. Our brothers and sisters. Do you really think little Johnny from next door is going to attack you? Hell, he probably dated your daughter! Besides, moron, do you really think any number of AR 15's are going to do you any real good when a tank with 50 caliber machine guns and canons parks in your front yard? Really? Even if you were somehow able to stop the tank the Sidewinder through the front window sort of brings it all to a quick close.

The NRA likes to quote the second amendment but only the second half "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed". They never quote the whole thing "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed".

The Constitution did not provide for a standing army. They feared it because of their experiences in Europe. James Madison addressed the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia on the dangers of a permanent army. “A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty." They envisioned a citizen army on call for national defense. A "well regulated militia". It's easy to see why they would not want one of the states who's rights are protected otherwise in the Tenth Amendment to deny the militia men of their guns.

However in time the need for a standing military became clear and we now have Marines, Army, Navy and Air Force. The dangers they feared never materialized and we now view our armed forces as brave servants of our nation. We no longer have a militia on call by the government. The Army Reserve and National Guard are about the closest thing but hardly a farmer with his flint lock by the door.

The Second Amendment is a conditional sentence. In a conditional sentence, there are two parts, (1) the antecedent = the protasis, and (2) the consequent = the apodosis. The potasis implies the apodosis. The first half, "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state" implies "the right of the people to keep and bare arms shall not be infringed." With out 1, 2 is invalid. Therefore when we adopted a standing military and the militia became obsolete the restriction on passing laws regulating gun ownership was nullified. Even is this is rejected (you'd have to explain to me why the first half is here) no right is absolute!

The first amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. Free speech? Libel someone and see if you get sued.

Freedom of the press? Print military secrets and go to jail.

Right of assembly? Try assembling on the White House lawn. Hell, George Bush wouldn't allow protesters near him. They had "Free Speech Zones!

The Eight Amendment: Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. All you have to do is think Marijuana laws.

So reasonable restrictions on guns is no different. In the 1930's machine guns were outlawed. No one is saying we need to repeal that law. There is a line drawn somewhere. It doesn't push us all down the feared slippery slope.

It's not a matter of what is needed. It's not a valid argument to say people don't need AR 15s or AK 47s. The question is balance. Is your desire to own your phallic symbol outweigh  the rest of societies need to have them off the streets and unavailable to homicidal maniacs.

It's cowardice that drives the people who think they need guns. Fear of everything and everyone. Yes, there is always a chance of something bad happening. I prefer to not live in that fear.

I have friend who has a 7 year old daughter. She cries now when it's time to go to school. She asks if she will be shot there. This is what the NRA has given us. A country living in fear of it's own government and everyone not like them. A country awash in guns where anyone who want to can get one. A country where we can't have background checks for all gun sales or even the most reasonable restrictions. But a country where children are afraid to go to school.

Thanks you cowardly assholes.