How many prayers, do you suppose, were offered up during the Holocaust, and to what effect? Aside from the psychological effects on the believer, prayer never affected the outcome of anything. I'm beyond sick of the politicians offering up their thoughts and prayers in the wake of another senseless tragedy, while continuing to do the gun lobby's bidding.
The conservatives he’ll bent on seeing transgender people as villains won’t see things this way, but this proves that transgender people are just people like everyone else. It sucks that this tragedy was perpetrated by a transgender person in this social climate, but the social climate is making them pretty desperate. I’m not saying all transgender folks are going to resort to violence, the opposite really, it is amazing there aren’t more the way they get treated every day. But this shows that transgender people are no different than everyone else, they aren’t saints, they are capable of violence just like a cis-het, white, Christian male is. Or any other person for that matter, it’s just these shootings are generally done by that particular demographic over any other.
I saw a Reddit thread (or Twitter or whatever social media) that started with a claim that women are incapable of designing a building, committing mass murder, and a number of other things that are considered male dominion. The thread went on to prove the claim wrong by listing all the great and terrible things done by women. Then concluded that to deny women can be terrible or great dehumanizes them, and makes them second class to men. The same goes for other demographics like transgender people. This is just data proving the humanity of transgender people, sad and horrifying as it is.
Gun control, or gun responsibility or whatever you want to call it will help, it has helped in the past, it helps in other countries and it is the only thing to alleviate the problem. All the suggestions Hemant provides in the article are thoughtful intelligent and useful, therefore ought to be implemented. Thoughts and prayers are only good for condolences but not for addressing the issue and we really do need to move past this. We need our children to survive every school day.
The Republicans will shout “don’t politicize this” but will be the first to politicize the fact the shooter was transgender. But when has hypocrisy ever bothered a Republican.
Just for grins, let's talk about how it would look if prayer actually worked. You know, you pray for something, and it actually happens because there's a wishing-god answering at all hours of the day and night.
If, by some twist of fate, praying for an end to school shootings worked, I'd be getting down on my aching knees to keep kids safe. A little pain would be worth it, really, and it'd be irresponsible not to at that point. I don't have kids, but I still have to hold back tears when I hear about these school shootings; no parent should ever lose their child that way. If prayer actually worked, I would be painfully praying to a god that doesn't exist for an end to these nightmares every day for as long as it took to end these. The reason I'm not doing so is very simply that prayer has yet to stop so much as jaywalking, never mind the deaths of innocent schoolkids when someone takes a gun in hand.
You want me to pray? Fine. Prove to me that prayer actually works with verifiable, valid, repeatable evidence. I'm not interested in incidental stuff, or the occasional testimonial, I want evidence that prayer works consistently, correctly, and with a divine intent behind it. I've tried praying before back when I was a kid, and it didn't work then, either. Until then, start putting together gun laws that make it harder for school shooters to become mass murderers.
Much as I support every point made in this post, the Christian gun nuts have an answer for everything. A wrong answer of course, but they will never, ever change their minds. Even losing some of their own kids rather than people in a gay nightclub. I simply don't see an answer to this, and I'm pretty glad I'm not being paid to come up with one.
I hear it said by gun supporters that guns don’t kill people, people kill people. Well yes, true, but I’ve never yet heard of somebody being shot when guns are absent.
I thank all praying Americans and their bad aim god for protecting the schools in my country so well /s
Joke aside I never held a real gun, only the toys ones to shoot balloons but my parents rules were clear (you always point the barrel toward the ground, you put it on the counter to recharge it, you only "close" the barrel when you are about to shoot, you always wait for the stall owner to go on the side). Every time I didn't respect one of these rules it was over. Same for dart games.
I hate that a transgender person commited that crime. Because they have to be perfect and pure and always have to prove that they are somehow better than anyone else.
I hate that trans-people always have to be perfect and pure, just to prove that they are somehow better than anyone else. Because they are not. They are just people, like anyone else. They are better, the same, worse... just normal people.
And I hate how the right-wing ghouls are already ecstatic with glee and boast about their being right about everything and how trans-people are demons and monsters.
What this guy (as far as I have heard) did cannot be excused. But it can surely be explained... and it is NOT "Oh, all trans-people are crazy!"
This is a Calvinist school. With lots of emphasis on "inerrant scripture" and such. I don't want to know what the shooter went through when he was a student at that school.
I posted this story on the previous article yesterday, so I'll no doubt be repeating myself.
Houses of worship. Christian private schools. Lots and lots of praying going on, and yet YHVH never intercedes to stop tragedies like this from happening. Never once. If the biblical god exists, it would appear obvious even to a blind person that he takes great pleasure in the suffering of both adults and children. He watches sparrows while humans die.
It's up to humans to accomplish what the "omnipotent" one is powerless to do. Enact meaningful gun legislation, starting with a ban on the sale of assault rifles. My state of Washington passed such a bill in the House and sent it on to the Senate. As far as I know it's still in play there. Perhaps this latest nightmare will provide impetus to the Senate saying yes and passing that legislation on to Gov. Inslee, who'd sign it into law in a heartbeat.
As I recall, what little gun control this country had was put in place because the Black Panthers armed themselves. Can't wait to see Republicans drawing up legislation to put all (suspected) trans people on a list and prevent them from purchasing firearms.
Incidentally, I also imagine there will be a clause in that bill that requires trans people to wear identifying armbands.
Sorry, Jesus was busy this weekend at the Elite Eight empowering basketball players--you know, the ones who thank him by name for everything they've accomplished whenever they're interviewed after the game. So, Jesus was chillin' and didn't notice "the shooter." (For that matter, Jesus hasn't stopped any of the thousands of mass-murders...)
I'll say it again. It is surprising this doesn't happen more often. LGBT people have been given copious reasons to want some people dead, especially at schools that almost certainly abused them. But it seems to happen at a much lower rate than the percentage of LGBT people in society.
I am glad that the police response was swift, and more lives weren't lost. I am saddened by the fact that the police response was fatal to the shooter. And, although I cannot condone the shooter's actions. I can understand (at least a little) what may have motivated them.
Being a relatively decent human while everyone around says you are the definition of evil just for who you are is difficult at best to manage.
How many prayers, do you suppose, were offered up during the Holocaust, and to what effect? Aside from the psychological effects on the believer, prayer never affected the outcome of anything. I'm beyond sick of the politicians offering up their thoughts and prayers in the wake of another senseless tragedy, while continuing to do the gun lobby's bidding.
The conservatives he’ll bent on seeing transgender people as villains won’t see things this way, but this proves that transgender people are just people like everyone else. It sucks that this tragedy was perpetrated by a transgender person in this social climate, but the social climate is making them pretty desperate. I’m not saying all transgender folks are going to resort to violence, the opposite really, it is amazing there aren’t more the way they get treated every day. But this shows that transgender people are no different than everyone else, they aren’t saints, they are capable of violence just like a cis-het, white, Christian male is. Or any other person for that matter, it’s just these shootings are generally done by that particular demographic over any other.
I saw a Reddit thread (or Twitter or whatever social media) that started with a claim that women are incapable of designing a building, committing mass murder, and a number of other things that are considered male dominion. The thread went on to prove the claim wrong by listing all the great and terrible things done by women. Then concluded that to deny women can be terrible or great dehumanizes them, and makes them second class to men. The same goes for other demographics like transgender people. This is just data proving the humanity of transgender people, sad and horrifying as it is.
Gun control, or gun responsibility or whatever you want to call it will help, it has helped in the past, it helps in other countries and it is the only thing to alleviate the problem. All the suggestions Hemant provides in the article are thoughtful intelligent and useful, therefore ought to be implemented. Thoughts and prayers are only good for condolences but not for addressing the issue and we really do need to move past this. We need our children to survive every school day.
The Republicans will shout “don’t politicize this” but will be the first to politicize the fact the shooter was transgender. But when has hypocrisy ever bothered a Republican.
Just for grins, let's talk about how it would look if prayer actually worked. You know, you pray for something, and it actually happens because there's a wishing-god answering at all hours of the day and night.
If, by some twist of fate, praying for an end to school shootings worked, I'd be getting down on my aching knees to keep kids safe. A little pain would be worth it, really, and it'd be irresponsible not to at that point. I don't have kids, but I still have to hold back tears when I hear about these school shootings; no parent should ever lose their child that way. If prayer actually worked, I would be painfully praying to a god that doesn't exist for an end to these nightmares every day for as long as it took to end these. The reason I'm not doing so is very simply that prayer has yet to stop so much as jaywalking, never mind the deaths of innocent schoolkids when someone takes a gun in hand.
You want me to pray? Fine. Prove to me that prayer actually works with verifiable, valid, repeatable evidence. I'm not interested in incidental stuff, or the occasional testimonial, I want evidence that prayer works consistently, correctly, and with a divine intent behind it. I've tried praying before back when I was a kid, and it didn't work then, either. Until then, start putting together gun laws that make it harder for school shooters to become mass murderers.
Much as I support every point made in this post, the Christian gun nuts have an answer for everything. A wrong answer of course, but they will never, ever change their minds. Even losing some of their own kids rather than people in a gay nightclub. I simply don't see an answer to this, and I'm pretty glad I'm not being paid to come up with one.
The man who prays is the one who thinks that god has arranged matters all wrong, but who also thinks that he can instruct god how to put them right.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Mortality
I hear it said by gun supporters that guns don’t kill people, people kill people. Well yes, true, but I’ve never yet heard of somebody being shot when guns are absent.
Thoughts and prayers are useless, even more so to the corpses of murdered children.
https://ih1.redbubble.net/image.566666523.9455/fp,504x498,black,off_white,box20,s,f8f8f8-pad,600x600,f8f8f8.u2.jpg
"It’s odd that so many countries with church attendance a fraction of ours have almost zero mass shootings."
That's because they have highly strict gun control laws and much difficult access to guns.
The US... not so much, unfortunately.
I thank all praying Americans and their bad aim god for protecting the schools in my country so well /s
Joke aside I never held a real gun, only the toys ones to shoot balloons but my parents rules were clear (you always point the barrel toward the ground, you put it on the counter to recharge it, you only "close" the barrel when you are about to shoot, you always wait for the stall owner to go on the side). Every time I didn't respect one of these rules it was over. Same for dart games.
A transgender person.
I hate that.
I hate that a transgender person commited that crime. Because they have to be perfect and pure and always have to prove that they are somehow better than anyone else.
I hate that trans-people always have to be perfect and pure, just to prove that they are somehow better than anyone else. Because they are not. They are just people, like anyone else. They are better, the same, worse... just normal people.
And I hate how the right-wing ghouls are already ecstatic with glee and boast about their being right about everything and how trans-people are demons and monsters.
What this guy (as far as I have heard) did cannot be excused. But it can surely be explained... and it is NOT "Oh, all trans-people are crazy!"
This is a Calvinist school. With lots of emphasis on "inerrant scripture" and such. I don't want to know what the shooter went through when he was a student at that school.
REPUBLICGUNS: "Screw 'em! We want out guns!!!"
I posted this story on the previous article yesterday, so I'll no doubt be repeating myself.
Houses of worship. Christian private schools. Lots and lots of praying going on, and yet YHVH never intercedes to stop tragedies like this from happening. Never once. If the biblical god exists, it would appear obvious even to a blind person that he takes great pleasure in the suffering of both adults and children. He watches sparrows while humans die.
It's up to humans to accomplish what the "omnipotent" one is powerless to do. Enact meaningful gun legislation, starting with a ban on the sale of assault rifles. My state of Washington passed such a bill in the House and sent it on to the Senate. As far as I know it's still in play there. Perhaps this latest nightmare will provide impetus to the Senate saying yes and passing that legislation on to Gov. Inslee, who'd sign it into law in a heartbeat.
As I recall, what little gun control this country had was put in place because the Black Panthers armed themselves. Can't wait to see Republicans drawing up legislation to put all (suspected) trans people on a list and prevent them from purchasing firearms.
Incidentally, I also imagine there will be a clause in that bill that requires trans people to wear identifying armbands.
Sorry, Jesus was busy this weekend at the Elite Eight empowering basketball players--you know, the ones who thank him by name for everything they've accomplished whenever they're interviewed after the game. So, Jesus was chillin' and didn't notice "the shooter." (For that matter, Jesus hasn't stopped any of the thousands of mass-murders...)
I'll say it again. It is surprising this doesn't happen more often. LGBT people have been given copious reasons to want some people dead, especially at schools that almost certainly abused them. But it seems to happen at a much lower rate than the percentage of LGBT people in society.
I am glad that the police response was swift, and more lives weren't lost. I am saddened by the fact that the police response was fatal to the shooter. And, although I cannot condone the shooter's actions. I can understand (at least a little) what may have motivated them.
Being a relatively decent human while everyone around says you are the definition of evil just for who you are is difficult at best to manage.