Monday, January 10, 2011

On the Tucson shooting

This is going to come out like a disjointed rant. I don't care - that is what it is.

OK, I've had enough. This did it for me.
AT THE DIRECTION OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, THE FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES SHALL BE FLOWN AT HALF-STAFF UPON RECEIPT OF THIS MESSAGE, UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE, IN HONOR OR THE SHOOTING VICTIMS IN TUCSON, ARIZONA. FURTHER GUIDANCE WILL BE PASSED UPON RECEIPT AS TO THE DURATION OF THIS HALF-STAFFING OBSERVANCE. THE FLAG SHALL BE FLOWN AT HALF-STAFF ON ALL DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE BUILDINGS, GROUNDS, AND NAVAL VESSELS THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES AND ABROAD.
To my nation I say; stop.

Of course our thoughts and prayers need to be with those killed and injured - but in a nation of over 300 million people, tragedy happens every day.

This was the act of a madman. Pure and simple. With this orgy of coverage we are only encouraging the insane among us.

The worst behavior though has been from Congress. If you need any more evidence of an insular narcissistic organization regardless of party - this is it. It. Isn't. About. You.

Get to work.

You should not stop your business because one of your members is the victim of a madman. And what is this quote for?
Boehner said that the House will not move forward next week in its efforts to repeal the health care reform law, but instead will act legislatively to “take necessary action regarding yesterday's events.”
What a classic example of where narcissism and arrogance overlap.

Are our elected representatives so high on power that they think they can legislate away insanity? What can you do Speaker beside pose? What action through what 3,000 mile multi-tool are you going to do?

How many freedoms are you willing to throw away in a vain hope that some more short-term security will be gained? Good googly-moogly, where is the leadership in our cowering political class?

That leads into the next vomit inducing act - political opportunism. Never let a crisis go to waste. The usual
enemies of liberty come up with their expected response. Nothing can't be cured by taking away individual liberty, from speech to arms - even though they have nothing to do with the madness.

Then there are those on the Left and the
media that knee jerk that "right-wing nut" meme - in spite of the fact that this guy, even in his insanity, is defined by all who knew him as a radical Leftist if anything. I won't call him a Leftist though ... because ... he is insane. The intellectual laziness and naked partisanship we are seeing would leave me gobsmacked if I didn't expect it.

We all know the
hypocrisy of DailyKos and MSNBC ... but the European Press have outdone themselves - once again tells us more about themselves than the USA. I am so sick of the Europeans on so many levels. We cannot leave that continent soon enough so those quickly aging single child has-beens can finish each other off in welfare riots; throwing Belgian blocks at retreating police while pushing their guv'munt supplied walkers over uneven pavement while their muslim immigrants push out their 8th child while building their XXXth mosque using half their welfare checks.

Most of this stuff, like the bills coming out of Congress right now, have nothing to do with what happened in AZ. They were already written and waiting for the correct time - or what did Pelosi say - when the "issue is ripe." Sick.

Heck - before we even knew anything - one thing we do know is that when it comes to politicians being shot, it is more often than not a
Leftist, a nut, an Islamist or something in between.

The politics doesn't really matter though - extremists of all stripes want to do one thing - get attention and disrupt society.

Well - you get what you reward. By our reaction, we also give hints to terrorists on what to do to get the most bang for their buck, don't we? I can Red-Hat this in 10 minutes.

Want to know why I haven't posted about this until now?
Disgust.

To the media and those in DC. It isn't about you. This isn't worth going to half-mast unless we are going to do it for every murder. And don't give me crap about Congressmen needing a security detail everywhere they go. Yea, that is what a Republic should look like. Just what we need - more distance from the voters.

Risk comes with the job - as with any high profile position. Heck, even tiny little speck bloggers like me get threats from nutjobs.

Everyone needs to get some perspective. This isn't about DC, this isn't about force protection, this isn't about guns; this is about living in an imperfect world where the insane walk among us and the violently insane break through and remind us of that now and then.

If you want to look at more laws - look at ways to control those who show signs of being insane - there is an idea.

We are a better country and people than some of the things we have seen over the last 72-hrs. Ungh - I'm going to stop. Read Bookie for more.

Finally - I have a daughter close in age to the youngest victim. Watch the below from her parents.

I'll let her father speak on that subject for me - watch to the end. He has a right to speak on this - I don't.

UPDATE: Absolutely essential reading by Charles Krauthammer. Read it all.
UPDATE II: Thanks to the good folks at BLACKFIVE - even though NBC took the video down for some reason from where it once was - we have it again.

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