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.
But those were *jewish* prayers, Yahweh hasn’t cared about those in a couple thousand years. Christians are the current Chosen, only their prayers count. Well, white male, conservative Christian prayers. He hasn’t changed that much.
Jews think of themselves as God’s “chosen people”. But look at the historical record. They’ve spent almost their entire existence in either captivity, exile, slavery, persecution, ghettoes, or death camps. I wonder how many of them ever wish that God had chosen some OTHER people instead.
Even at the height of Solomon's kingdom, the empire of God's "chosen people" never amounted to much. They were always overshadowed by much larger, more powerful empires, and usually a client state of one or the other.
Jerry Falwell said something to that effect. My question, was who is Jerry Falwell to be putting limits on what an all powerful god can do? There is no situation so bad it cannot be made worse by religion.
If you get the chance, read the book on Falwell called "God's Bullies: Power, Politics and Religious Tyranny" by Perry Deane Young, published Jan 1 1982.
I know right!? And it's seen everywhere, even with that football player who we damn near lost. How much this has become a series regular is it noticed that people are taking advantage of the moments as the perfect means to not take action. A perfect example being these medical foundations in which the Vatican can easily contribute to, might I add.
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.
"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."
One of my closest friends is a transwoman and elected official. She received a hate-filled email yesterday from someone who spewed the 'real women can't do such things' rhetoric in the mix. Bigots gonna bigot.
TMZ has more info and videos which the police released. The shooter was a graphic artist who just recently started using a masculine name. They had no history of mental illness.
All sorts of Republican's are saying this is a mental health issue. This is sounding ominous. What do they mean by mental health? I'm guessing that it means anyone whose not a straight fundamentalist Christian is mentally ill. This will not end well.
Has it been proven that the shooter was trans? Republicans make shit up, and I'm not going to believe something that convenient for them without solid, independent verification.
TMZ states that the shooter recently started using a masculine name on their social media accounts and preferred the pronouns he/him. They were assigned female at birth. Its not certain yet.
They were a graphic artist so its possible it was marketing or the media is looking at the wrong account.
The thing I find amusing/interesting is if the shooter was trans, they were a trans man, not a trans woman who conservatives are terrified of.
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.
The night after I was sexually assaulted by a Marianist clergyman, I prayed--really hard--for God to protect me from that ever happening again. The very next day a second Marianist priest did the same thing to me. "Power of prayer," my ass. "Christian morality" my ass my ass.
The biblical god (were he real) not only failed to answer your prayer, he doubled down and sent a second child rapist your way. What a merry prankster YHVH is. *vomits*
Those countries usually have actual education, wich it seems like the more-gun-people would hate. And more equality. And better work safety/security. Though it seems like too many USA-worshipers do their best effort to end that, at least here.
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.
You NEVER point a gun (even unloaded) at a person unless you're willing to shoot him. You never shoot at or near a person unless you're willing to kill him.
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.
Not so much a hobby as a way of life. In NZ lots of people have guns. They go shooting with them either target or hunting. That's a hobby. Or for some hunting is a way of life, particularly poorer people in rural areas who put meat on the table. But in the US the whole gun thing is a way of life. And guess what happens when a way of life gets threatened.
We still romanticize the "Old West" frontier where everyone had a gun and the good guys always won the shoot outs. And of course, no one was keeping count of the toddler shootings back then.
I started thinking (?) today that maybe AR are so popular because you don't actually have to know how to shoot (ie. aim at something and hit it). Just holding down the trigger and spraying bullets can do a lot of damage.
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.
Tucker Carlson is already stirring up fear about trans people arming themselves. I can't believe the man can be so hypocritical, so OBVIOUSLY hypocritical and still have an audience.
Be interesting to see what the NRA says, given that they claim to support any group that arms itself.
They'll declare Trans people - gay people - atheists - non Christians etc. are all mentally ill and we need to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill.
If you don't talk daily to the right non existent sky fairy, you are mentally ill and shouldn't be allowed to own a gun.
I don't know. The NRA seems to think that even mentally ill people should have guns. Because something something reasons. Mind you, a bit of hypocrisy will easily get round this barrier.
They'll find a way to exclude queer people. Fuck, our judicial system is so poisoned by Christianity that they probably wouldn't even have to list a reason other than "they're not Christian". The majority of the current supreme court would jizz their britches if they got the chance to explicitly enshrine christians as a privileged elite class in the eyes of the law...
... officially I mean. Unofficially they already are, of course. It would also give the "moderate" "mainline" christians an excuse to be their worst selves without the potential legal ramifications (as minor and unlikely as those may be). They could go back to their roots and claim that they were just following orders.
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 always love the way sports events have to have alliterative names, like children's cartoon characters. Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, Final Four...Huckleberry Hound, Peter Potamus, Donald Duck, Woody Woodpecker... Same mentality.
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.
But those were *jewish* prayers, Yahweh hasn’t cared about those in a couple thousand years. Christians are the current Chosen, only their prayers count. Well, white male, conservative Christian prayers. He hasn’t changed that much.
Jews think of themselves as God’s “chosen people”. But look at the historical record. They’ve spent almost their entire existence in either captivity, exile, slavery, persecution, ghettoes, or death camps. I wonder how many of them ever wish that God had chosen some OTHER people instead.
If god treats his chosen people in this way, why should I worship him? What a dïck.
As we jews always say to god...
Would you mind choosing someone else for a change?
Even at the height of Solomon's kingdom, the empire of God's "chosen people" never amounted to much. They were always overshadowed by much larger, more powerful empires, and usually a client state of one or the other.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uil9jjO-EWQ at 33:05
The best reply I know.
Sorry, I lost track of this. I used to listen to the album a lot when I was a kid.
And that's exactly where I got my line.
Jerry Falwell said something to that effect. My question, was who is Jerry Falwell to be putting limits on what an all powerful god can do? There is no situation so bad it cannot be made worse by religion.
And Jerry Falwell proved that every chance he got.
If you get the chance, read the book on Falwell called "God's Bullies: Power, Politics and Religious Tyranny" by Perry Deane Young, published Jan 1 1982.
"Did you sleep well?
Yes, like "god" during the Holocaust."
Zing.
I know right!? And it's seen everywhere, even with that football player who we damn near lost. How much this has become a series regular is it noticed that people are taking advantage of the moments as the perfect means to not take action. A perfect example being these medical foundations in which the Vatican can easily contribute to, might I add.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx7irFN2gdI
"Cette vidéo inclut du contenu de BBC Studios qui l'a bloquée dans votre pays pour des raisons de droits d'auteur"
Well, THAT just sucks. It's important enough that it should be available to everyone everywhere.
Brilliant!
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.
"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."
One of my closest friends is a transwoman and elected official. She received a hate-filled email yesterday from someone who spewed the 'real women can't do such things' rhetoric in the mix. Bigots gonna bigot.
Also, just for fun, enjoy these:
https://youtu.be/SaHAvEEbQOE
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Don%27t_Like_Mondays
The BBC says that the shooter was born female but used masculine pronouns on-line. If the shooter was trans, he was a trans man.
TMZ has more info and videos which the police released. The shooter was a graphic artist who just recently started using a masculine name. They had no history of mental illness.
All sorts of Republican's are saying this is a mental health issue. This is sounding ominous. What do they mean by mental health? I'm guessing that it means anyone whose not a straight fundamentalist Christian is mentally ill. This will not end well.
Oppression amd demonization rarely end well.
And yet, simultaneously, right wingers will claim that being trans is totally imaginary.
Schrodinger's person, both cis and trans until someone opens the closet.
Okay
Has it been proven that the shooter was trans? Republicans make shit up, and I'm not going to believe something that convenient for them without solid, independent verification.
TMZ states that the shooter recently started using a masculine name on their social media accounts and preferred the pronouns he/him. They were assigned female at birth. Its not certain yet.
They were a graphic artist so its possible it was marketing or the media is looking at the wrong account.
The thing I find amusing/interesting is if the shooter was trans, they were a trans man, not a trans woman who conservatives are terrified of.
Either way, it's the Democrats' fault...Republicans win again.
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.
𝐼𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑔𝑜𝑑𝑠 𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑎𝑦𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑒𝑛, 𝑎𝑙𝑙 ℎ𝑢𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑑 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑞𝑢𝑖𝑐𝑘𝑙𝑦 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑠ℎ 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑙𝑦 𝑝𝑟𝑎𝑦 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑙𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒𝑓𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟.
-- Epicurus
Obligatory: https://youtu.be/MEEpavnk7Uw
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.
Since they think those kids are in heaven now, no harm done.
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.
Guns don't kill people. People kill people. People with guns kill people cuz it's a whole lot easier to kill with a gun.
"Any bloody fool can pull a trigger."
-- Mr. Braithwaite, "Enter the Dragon."
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
Where is YHVH when a child prays and prays to make their fathers stop raping them?
The night after I was sexually assaulted by a Marianist clergyman, I prayed--really hard--for God to protect me from that ever happening again. The very next day a second Marianist priest did the same thing to me. "Power of prayer," my ass. "Christian morality" my ass my ass.
I can't begin to imagine the horror you endured.
The biblical god (were he real) not only failed to answer your prayer, he doubled down and sent a second child rapist your way. What a merry prankster YHVH is. *vomits*
If YHVH exists, he's a god of evil.
Indeed. He even brags about creating evil within the pages of his book (Isaiah 45:7).
https://64.media.tumblr.com/54f35462e3178b7d7e091ec5f0ede7a5/tumblr_px0bpdPjW51wreoqmo1_500.jpg
Such a supreme being is unworthy of being called "supreme."
They are, in fact, a sadistic voyeur.
𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑒𝑖𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑎 𝐺𝑜𝑑 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑠 𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑑 𝑟𝑎𝑝𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑟𝑎𝑝𝑒 𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑑𝑟𝑒𝑛 𝑜𝑟 𝑦𝑜𝑢 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑎 𝐺𝑜𝑑 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑠𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑦 𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑐ℎ𝑒𝑠 𝑖𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑎𝑦𝑠, “𝑊ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑦𝑜𝑢’𝑟𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑛𝑒, 𝐼’𝑚 𝑔𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑝𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑠ℎ 𝑦𝑜𝑢.” 𝐼𝑓 𝐼 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑝 𝑎 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑜𝑛 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑟𝑎𝑝𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎 𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑑, 𝐼 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑. 𝑇ℎ𝑎𝑡’𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑡𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑚𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝐺𝑜𝑑.
-- Tracie Harris
Jerking off in the corner.
"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.
Those countries usually have actual education, wich it seems like the more-gun-people would hate. And more equality. And better work safety/security. Though it seems like too many USA-worshipers do their best effort to end that, at least here.
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.
You NEVER point a gun (even unloaded) at a person unless you're willing to shoot him. You never shoot at or near a person unless you're willing to kill him.
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!!!"
"Who could possibly think the lives of a few kids are more important that MY hobby?!"
Not so much a hobby as a way of life. In NZ lots of people have guns. They go shooting with them either target or hunting. That's a hobby. Or for some hunting is a way of life, particularly poorer people in rural areas who put meat on the table. But in the US the whole gun thing is a way of life. And guess what happens when a way of life gets threatened.
We still romanticize the "Old West" frontier where everyone had a gun and the good guys always won the shoot outs. And of course, no one was keeping count of the toddler shootings back then.
Or how prone the Colt .45...the gun that supposedly won the west...was to accidental discharge.
People who used that 6-shooter tended to load it with only 5 rounds, the hammer down on an empty chamber.
I started thinking (?) today that maybe AR are so popular because you don't actually have to know how to shoot (ie. aim at something and hit it). Just holding down the trigger and spraying bullets can do a lot of damage.
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.
Where was the xtian god at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, when Dylan Roof showed up to murder people who were at church praying?
Where was he when that good, pro-life Scott Roeder murdered fellow Christian Dr. George Tiller? DURING SERVICES, no less.
That’s easy, they weren’t in the *cough* white *cough* church.
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.
Tucker Carlson is already stirring up fear about trans people arming themselves. I can't believe the man can be so hypocritical, so OBVIOUSLY hypocritical and still have an audience.
Be interesting to see what the NRA says, given that they claim to support any group that arms itself.
They'll declare Trans people - gay people - atheists - non Christians etc. are all mentally ill and we need to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill.
If you don't talk daily to the right non existent sky fairy, you are mentally ill and shouldn't be allowed to own a gun.
I don't know. The NRA seems to think that even mentally ill people should have guns. Because something something reasons. Mind you, a bit of hypocrisy will easily get round this barrier.
They'll find a way to exclude queer people. Fuck, our judicial system is so poisoned by Christianity that they probably wouldn't even have to list a reason other than "they're not Christian". The majority of the current supreme court would jizz their britches if they got the chance to explicitly enshrine christians as a privileged elite class in the eyes of the law...
... officially I mean. Unofficially they already are, of course. It would also give the "moderate" "mainline" christians an excuse to be their worst selves without the potential legal ramifications (as minor and unlikely as those may be). They could go back to their roots and claim that they were just following orders.
Matt Walsh is jumping in on that too.
Quelle surprise! :)
Pink Panthers, unite. Maybe show up on a couple of capitol steps.
Gov. DeSatan: "Armbands! Geeeeenius!"
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 always love the way sports events have to have alliterative names, like children's cartoon characters. Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, Final Four...Huckleberry Hound, Peter Potamus, Donald Duck, Woody Woodpecker... Same mentality.
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.