oops! Palin's Bullseye was a Bullseye

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Gabrielle Giffords: Palin's Bullseye

It's all fun and games until a congresswoman gets shot.


Gabrielle Giffords' skull was breached not by a word, but by a bullet. The reason for which the bullet was fired, though, was words, countless words, strewn across our political landscape like hateful, irrational confetti. In the past years our national dialog about politics ceased to be a genuine conversation and degraded into a national shouting match the caliber and competence of which could be outshined by the monosyllabic nonsense uttered at most major sporting events. We've turned politics into a sport, a blood sport, within which each team bunkers within its own ideology and shoots, now literally, at those on "the other side".

It is not hyperbole to maintain that something is wrong, fundamentally wrong, with our culture. In Sharron Angle's 2nd amendment solutions and Sarah Palin's Target Map a problem is obvious and apparent. Jesse Kelly's 'Get On Target for Victory' Event evidenced a hateful, idiotic infection within our political zeitgeist. We've made politics into a war, a conflict, wherein it is commonplace and uneventful to speak of "targeting" one's opponent or "fighting" the other party.

We cannot ignore, nor can we deny the fact of the Tucson shooting. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona was shot in the head. Federal Judge John Roll was killed. A nine-year-old girl, Christina Taylor Greene, is now dead. The reason for which they were shot, the reason for which they are dead, is words. Palin's words. Angle's words. O'Reilly's words. Beck's words. The idea of political violence did not magic itself into the mind of shooter Jared Lee Loughner. It was implanted by those whose words communicate hateful, ill-intentioned violence towards those with whom they disagree.

We have forgotten that we are people, we have forgotten that we are human, and instead we've conceived of ourselves as the passive disembodied observers to a highly-acclaimed cultural B-movie within which pundits and talking heads vie for dominance in a race to King of the Rhetorical Mountain. So when Glenn Beck jokes about poisoning Nancy Palosi, we pay it virtually no mind. It is acceptable, it is commonplace, it is uneventful. It has been that way for years. Television pundits and media personalities can invoke the language of hate, the language of murder, the language of death without fear of retribution because, hey, they're just words; we have freedom of speech. It's simple, harmless, entertainment.

Except that a nine-year-old girl is now fucking dead. So, we probably ought to fix the god damned problem.

It is true that we have a first amendment. It is true that we have a freedom of speech. But sometimes we forget what that amendment and that phrase actually are. We take "freedom of speech" to be an absolute freedom, a permission slip to spout whatever nonsense we like. And we forget that in 1919, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., writing the opinion of a unanimous Supreme Court, put a legal damper on the proverbial stupid:

The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic. [...] The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent.

You have the freedom of speech, but you don't get to yell "fire!" in a crowded theatre when there is no fire.

Sharron Angle, Sarah Palin, Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck, and countless others have spent the past years screaming "FIRE!" at the top of their lungs within our crowded political theatre. But there is no fire. Yes, we have a president with whom they disagree. Yes, he enacted particular political steps with which they disagree. But these are hardly world-shattering changes that merit a call to literal arms.

You don't get to yell "FIRE!" in a crowded theatre. Yet, somehow, Angle and Palin were allowed to yell "FIRE!" within our political theatre without incurring any consequence. They could say whatever they liked, and no harm would result. Hey, they're just words. Sharron Angle proposed 2nd Amendment Solutions. Sarah Palin placed a crosshair on the skull of Gabrielle Giffords. These were just words; they were simply political theatre.

Until a shooter found Palin's mark.

The langue used by Palin and Angle today resulted in the death of five human beings. The language used by Palin and Angle placed a hole in the skull of Gabrielle Giffords.

If Angle and Palin are surprised, they are idiots.
If Angle and Palin are happy, they are evil.
And if they deny any link between the shooting and their rhetoric, they are ill-intentioned, malevolent liars.

I'm not in a position to stop the likes of Angle and Palin. I can't do anything to end their campaigns of hate. But there are people in positions of power who understand that it is against the law to scream "FIRE!" when there is no fire. There are persons in power who understand that inciting mass hysteria behooves no one. And there are sure as shit persons in power who understand that as of yesterday, this nonsensical, hateful, violence-inducing language of Angle, Palin, Beck, O'Reilly and a wealth of others ceased to be fun and games.

Because people are now dead.

Mameshiba [chat]

Let us begin the new year with a reminder of how fucked up Japan really is.

A Craigslist reposting of quality

LFG: Looking for Groomsmen (Seattle)

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Date: 2011-01-04, 9:21PM PST
Reply to:gigs-s8qys-2144398205@craigslist.org^{[Errors when replying to ads?]}

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I'm getting married this fall and I'm in need of a few good men. If you're looking for a free meal, a chance to hit on emotionally charged members of both sexes, and a potentially endless supply of booze, then look no further.

Here's what I need:

Manliness tempered with humility - Is your jaw chiseled from a mountain? Do women come flocking to you for no reason other than for the chance to bask in the manly musk that exudes from your pores that were undoubtedly carved by meteors that crashed into you on that fateful night you were born? When Chuck Norris and Vin Diesel lose a fight to Brock Samson, do they consult you for martial arts tips? When you receive emails about enlargement "down under" do you scoff at the comparatively small sizes they offer? Good.

Now, are you willing to throw that all away so that for one day, you'll look worse than me in a tux? For one day, are you willing to be at the complete whim of myself and my undoubtedly stressed bride-to-be? And for at least the first half that day, are you willing to hold back on your gout-inducing, knee-jerk reflex to drink away your problems with grain alcohol fermented by 19 generations of drunk-as-shit German monks? Excellent, then read on.

Nerdiness - I want a god damn awesome D&D game at a swank hotel suite for my bachelor party. I'm not kidding around here folks. If you can't deliver on this, then stop reading right now, put down your Jack Johnson playing iPod, find the closest IT guy and punch him in the face because you might as well be a jock. If my bachelor party doesn't have fire-breathing dragons, barrel-chested bloodthirsty vikings and voluptuous orc strippers gyrating to Kanye West's "Monster" (in-game only if you're reading this sweetie!) then its a complete failure. If you take this to mean I want hookers on a bed made of fine Columbian coke, then you're fired. If you take this to mean that by the end of the night I'm yelling "two natural 20s! that makes a 40. Now gimme another Old English, Galstaf, Sorcerer of Light!" then you're hired right now.

Oh yeah, and you have to be willing to wear d20 cuff links, because my fiance already made you some.

Willing to pull yourself together - Your manliness has been established at this point. Your nerdiness is second to none. Now you've got to pull yourself together. For the next few months, your only excuses for being late or forgetting something can only be one of the following: 1) you were recovering from the aforementioned bachelor party, or 2) you were helping one of the orc strippers recover from the aforementioned bachelor party. I know your life may currently be a pathetic cycle of going to a menial job and then drinking yourself stupid to cover up the smell of your own self-disgust, but you must pull yourself together for this event.

Honesty - You know that baby blue tux that I think will look really good on me, especially after i embroider a picture of two robots doing "it" to symbolize my love and passion for my bride-to-be? You better be ready to smack the stupid out of me before I finalize such decisions. In fact, your hands better be more calloused than John Henry's, American folk hero and destroyer of machines, after you slap all the stupid ideas out of me. Just do so in places where the bruises won't show please.

If you've got what it takes let me know ASAP.

P.S. If your name is a river in Africa, then I'll also need you to be my best man too.

The Man with the Nice Teeth has Done It Again.

The man I am referring to, of course, is our friend Dr. Duffy, and the it I am referring to is, quite naturally, the publishing of a book:


Making Sense of Sex: Responsible Decision Making for Young Singles

Having sex can be a loving and delightful experience, but it can also be emotionally, physically, and spiritually devastating. Many singles struggle to sort out how to make their own sexual experiences physically and emotionally healthy ones. This book can help. Duffy offers a thoughtful guide to sexual decision making for single twentysomethings, exploring ten issues readers should consider when deciding whether and when to have sex. Appropriate for non-Christians and Christians alike, Duffy's work is as relevant to those who have already had sex as it is to those who are considering it for the first time.

It's going to be ponderous.

Final [chat] of 2010

Only two years till the world ends. Enjoy it while it lasts.

4.2 Earthquake in Indiana Fills Slow News Day

At 8 a.m. eastern time a 4.2 earthquake occurred 15 miles east-southeast of Kokomo, 15 miles west-southwest from Marion and 50 miles north of Indianapolis, prompting numerous news agencies to fill previously unfilled minutes with needless witness reports.

Anne Magenthorpe of Kokomo reported that the earthquake "felt like the ground was shaking." When pressed for details Magenthorpe expounded: "Well, it shook. Like, prior to the earthquake there was no shaking. Then the earthquake happened and, whoa, the earth shook."

Paul Raginkrotch of Carmel reportedly "felt a shaking" as if "something had been shaken." Asked if the event was similar to any other Raginkrotch stated, "Well, you know how trains kind of shake the ground? This was like that, only more shaking."

Geologist Terry Nevarlade provided a scientific spin on the earthquake: "During an earthquake the ground shakes. Like, you know how when things move they send out vibrations? An earthquake is like that...but the earth is what moves...and shakes."

USGS specialist Hershal Bangenmom released a memo to news agencies indicating that the official USGS webpage for recent Indiana earthquakes has been updated, as there is now a more recent Indiana earthquake than the previous Indiana earthquake. When asked why the page was updated, Bangenmom replied, "Because there was an earthquake...in Indiana...this morning."

If the day's news continues to be uneventful numerous agencies plan on airing a brief documentary this evening entitled: 'Earthquakes, they shake the ground.'