Florida Teens Giving Me A (Slight) Glimmer Of Hope

Articulate teenagers like Cameron Kasky are trying - and
might succeed - at doing bribed, stupid and dumb politicians
won't do: Create sensible gun laws that don't
violate the Second Amendment 

Teenagers across America, particularly in Florida, have been embarrassing the rest of us this past week, and I couldn't be more delighted that they're doing so.

As you sadly know too well, we had another mass shooting last week, taking the lives of 17 high school students and teachers in Florida.

As always in these cases, which now seem to happen every day, the people who are supposed to be the adults in the room, especially many politicians, fail us.

They're supposed to lead us, but instead offer empty thoughts and prayers, clutch their pearls over people with mental illness, and above all, quake in fear over angering the National Rifle Association.

The NRA has long since decided that their ability to provide - and make plenty of money - from making sure everybody has unfettered access to any kind of weapon is worth a few dozen people getting killed in mass shootings every year.

After the Parkland, Florida mass shooting, teenagers in Florida are having none of it. The dignified rage, the logic and the resolve of these kids are putting us all to shame.

Current politicians will continue to kowtow to the NRA and nothing will immediately change. The millions of dollars politicians get from the NRA will grease the wheels to Capital Hill, with a gentle additional push from timid voters. Want an AR-15 to shoot up a school, concert or church? Knock yourself out!

For now.

These kids not only those in Florida, but the ones that are now part of a groundswell nationwide, will soon be old enough to vote. They've taken an activist cue from older people who are resisting the Trump administration, the Nazis, the white supremacists that seem to be gaining strength in this country.

The resistance from high school students in particular gives me a glimmer of hope that these teenagers will change things.

Their anger is building. And their message is getting more powerful. There's lots of examples.

Parkland student Cameron Kasky, interviewed by CNN's Anderson Cooper, didn't mince words. Kasky did heap deserved praise on teachers, staff and first responders, but has no patience for the thoughts and prayers crowd.

"Everything I've heard where we can't do anything and it's out of our hands and it's inevitable, I think that's a façade that the GOP is putting up."

Kasky pressed on: "After every shooting, the NRA sends a memo saying 'send your thoughts and prayers.' This is the only country where this kind of thing happens. I've heard from other people, and they don't have gun drills. We had to prepare extensively at Stoneman Douglas. This something that can be stopped and will be stopped.

"There is a segment of this society that will shrug this off and send your thoughts and prayers but march for hours over a rainbow wedding cake."

That last line crystalizes the hypocrisy in the GOP more than anything. (By the way, the entire Kasky/Cooper interview is definitely worth the watch. 

As Wired notes, teenagers are more savvy at social media, and media in general, and know how to fight back against lies, gaslighting and self-puffery.  These students, amid the shock and terror of the attack, literally began to fight back against the NRA and their politician patsys as the rampage was ongoing.

David Hogg, a Parkland senior and reporter for the school's paper, interviewed students barricaded in a culinary classroom during the shooting. "No amount of money should make it more easy to get accessibility to guns," one frightened student told Hogg in that room.

Many of the students are wonderfully through with respecting some of their elders. But only the elders that are failing them.  The teens, gloriously, are not afraid to be blunt.

Professional idiot and, I guess, right wing pundit Tomi Lahren spewed the usual talking points, saying liberals and morons and the mentally whacked out are to blame for Parkland, not guns.

This prompted one student to respond on Twitter: "A gun has killed 17 of my fellow classmates. A gun has traumatized my friends. My entire school, traumatizes from this tragedy. This could have been prevented. Please stfu  tomi."

Yeah, Tomi, probably best to listen to that student. I would, if I were in your shoes.

Here's another Twitter post from a Parkland student named Sarah Chad:

"I don't want your condolences you fucking piece of shit, my friends and teachers were shot. Multiple of my fellow classmates are dead. Do something instead of sending prayers. Prayers won't fix this. But gun control will prevent it from happening again."

As if you need more, a teen at the school was quoted as follows:  “I’m not a Russian computer, so I can’t vote but will push elected officials on gun control."

High school students across the nation are planning a walkout from their classes sometimes in March to demand changes to gun laws. They all know that almost nobody wants to repeal the Second Amendment. Most of the students don't want that.

But every Constitutional right has its responsibilities as well. You can't just do whatever you want, including mass murder. These teenagers understand this, because it's common sense.

Too bad the NRA and their puppet politicians don't understand this. Or pretend not to. The activism of teenagers across the United States give me a glimmer of hope that this will one day change.

North Carolina Keeps Coming Up With "Interesting" Politicians For Some Reason

Larry Pittman, a North Carolina state GOP rep, says
Abraham Lincoln was a tyrant on par with Hitler. 

I've been watching for the past year with a mix of fascination, horror and amusement as North Carolina politicians keep coming up with the strangest legislative initiatives.

For the past year, for instance, they've been strangely obsessed with who uses public restrooms with them, which resulted in those weird 'bathroom bills" in which they try to keep transgendered people using rest rooms that correspond to the gender with which they identify.

Like it would be an improvement that a beareded redneck guy must share a restroom with the fine ladies of North Carolina. Or something like that.

The inspiration for these kinds of weird laws or proposals seems to come from a bench of mostly Republican North Carolina lawmakers who have rather, um, interesting viewpoints on history and the world around them.

One of these clowns is Larry Pittman, who, according to the Raleigh News and Observer recently introduced a bill trying to get North Carolina to defy the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage in all 50 states.

The bill will go nowhere and this isn't the most interesting thing about Pittman.

In a Facebook discussion, somebody who noticed Pittman's obsession with gay marriage told him to "get over it."

Pittman won't. He responded, breathtakingly: "And if Hitler had won, should the world just get over it? Lincoln was the same sort of tyrant, and personally responsible for the deaths of over 800,000 Americans in a war that was unnecessary and unconstitutional."

Well, that's certainly in interesting take on history.  There was that little matter of freeing the slaves the Lincoln was involved in, and why the Civil War was fought.

I dunno. Maybe Pittman thinks that slavery wasn't such a bad idea?

Somebody asked him on Facebook. No answer. The Raleigh News and Observer tried to ask him. No answer. Oh well.

By the way, Pittman, unlike other extreme right wing wackos, doesn't think former President Barack Obama is a traitor because "he didn't harm any Kenyans."

Ookie Dokey then!

Moving on:

The wife of former North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory had a pretty reasonable legislative request last year: Why not require so-called "puppy mills" to treat animals humanely. Many such puppy mills have a reputation for abusing animals, so the legislation made sense and the idea had bipartisan support in North Carolina.

Then came Rep. Michael Speciale, who apparently hates puppies, indicates Slate.  The legislation called for animals at "puppy mills" to get exercise daily. Speciale asked: "If I kick (a puppy across the floor, is that considered daily exercise?"

Mrs. McCrory's proposal would also require that if euthaniasia was necessary, that it be performed humanely. That seems straight forward enough. But not to Speciale "'Euthanasia performed humanely' - so should I choose the ax or the baseball bat?"

Lovely.

The point Speciale was trying to make (I think) is that he thought the language of the bill was too vague. But really? Sounds like this dude likes the fact that some puppy mills abuse animals.

Slate, in the same articles that cited Speciale, also brought us Rep. Carl Ford, who wanted to establish a state religion in North Carolina.

Yes, I know the First Amendment of the Constitution says that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.

Ford says this only applies to Congress, not states. Of course, Ford is ignoring the 14th Amendment, which applies most of the Bill of Rights to the states.

Even so, Ford tried to forge ahead, promoting a bill that would have allowed prayers and creationism in public schools, and allowed lawmakers to steer tax mone to the churches they especially liked.

The bill went nowhere, and the courts would have overturned it anyway, but nice try, Mr. Ford!

I guess it's become a tradition among extreme right wing politicians to wage Quixotic political battles in the imaginary belief they can create a world that suits them perfectly and forces the rest of us into that world, kicking and screaming.

The danger, of course, is that they do often succeed in lurching us a little closer to these bizarro worlds they want us all to live in. But at least they're too dumb and stubborn to fully make us go there.

Damn Americans have a habit of rebelling against being told what to do and who to be just because some wacko politicians says so.

Rob Ford And Friends: It's World Wacko Politician Week!

Politicians have been having a field day this week outdoing each other with stupidity.

Hawaii State Rep. Tom Brower, ready with his
sledgehammer to combat homelessness.
Or so he thinks.  

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has been hogging the spotlight here, what with his crack smoking, binge drinking, murder threatening, city councilor pushing rampage through his fair city.

The other day, I noted the Louisiana politician who thinks most clientele of libraries are druggies and hippied and moochers who go there to look at pictures of drugs and food stamps.

We also had a U.S. Congressman from Florida, who was arrested recently for possession of cocaine.

And now we have a pol in Hawaii, State Rep. Tom Brower, who says the best way to solve the intractable problem of homelessness is to batter the homeless peoples' shopping carts with sledgehammers.

 Says Hawaii News Now:

"In his spare time he scours streets and parks in his district, looking for shopping carts homeless use to store and move their belongings. He returns good ones to stores and destroys other with his sledgehammer."

"I got tired of telling people I'm trying to pass laws. I want to do something practical that will really clean up the streets," he said."

Though he's not actually destroying the homeless population's possessions, just their shopping carts (at least so far), I'm not quite so sure the sledgehammer trick will clean up the streets. A number of people in Hawaii agree with me that it would make things worse. OK, we're all being Captain Obvious here.

"There are some people who are not that stable and maybe drug affected that could really react to him," said Connie Mitchell of the Institute for Human Services in a big understatement to Hawaii News Now.

Despite the outcry against our fearless Brower, he might step up his activity even more. From Hawaii News Now:

 "Brower said he has yet to take a cart from a homeless person who's pushing it, but that may be coming. He supports other efforts to remove abandoned property. The sledgehammer approach is his way of pitching in."

Hmm. Not sure.  Maybe homeless people can be hired to make new shopping carts to replace the ones Brower is destroying? That doesn't seem like the best job creation program in the world.

Using a sledgehammer can be cathartic. Maybe I could smash up his desk Brower's desk at the Hawaii Statehouse with one.

Slavery and Death Penalty: What is UP with Crazy Arkansas Politicians?

Slavery wasn't such a bad thing. It wouldn't be such a bad idea to impose the death penalty on rebellious children.

These sure as hell aren't my opinions. They are the wisdom, so to speak, of recent statements by Arkansas policititians that came to light recently.

The Arkansas Times is having a field day with all this. First they reported on Rep. Jon  Hubbard, the guy who said slavery might have actually been a good thing.

Jon Hubbard of Arkansas says slavery might
not have been such a bad idea.

Said Hubbard: “… the institution of slavery that the black race has long believed to be an abomination upon its people may actually have been a blessing in disguise. The blacks who could endure those conditions and circumstances would someday be rewarded with citizenship in the greatest nation ever established upon the face of the Earth.”

Hubbard also opines: “Wouldn’t life for blacks in America today be more enjoyable and successful if they would only learn to appreciate the value of a good education?”

Actually, he's partly got a point there. Only the blacks in question don't need to learn to appreciate the value of a good education. They just need to have access to such education. You know, in buildings that aren't crumbling, with up to date technology and textbooks, and teachers who know what they're doing. Something new like that, not the substandard schools many minorities are subject to.

Hubbard has thoughts on other subjects as well, oh yes he does. Take immigration. He doesn't like it. He says: .."the immigration issue, both legal and illegal... will lead to planned wars or extermination. Although now this seems to be barbaric and uncivilized, it will at some point become as necessary as eating and breathing."

The Arkansas Times article doubtless leaves some details out. Or Hubbard is. Who's idea is it to have these planned wars and exterminations? And why? I don't know, Hubbard seems a bit pessimitic to me.

This all gets better when you check out the writings of Charles Fuqua, a Republican running for a seat in the Arkansas legislature. Fuqua says,  that several things, including the entire U.S. economy,.violate the 10 Commandments. I'm not sure how, but I'm not an expert like Fuqua.

Charles Fuqua says a viable option for parents of
rebellious kids is to kill the little brats

A major highlight of Fuqua's philosophy is his idea that imposing the death penalty on rebellious children isn't such a bad idea.

"The maintenance of civil order in society rests on the foundation of family discipline. Therefore, a child who disrespects his parents must be permanently removed from society in a way that gives an example to all other children of the importance of respect for parents. The death penalty for rebellioius children is not something to be taken lightly."

Of course, a parent can't just off his kid the first time the little brat mouths off.  The courts should carefully decide which rebellious kid should die, and which should not, which adds a welcome sense of orderliness and legal heft to the pratice of getting rid of annoying kids.

And happily, parents wouldn't be compelled to kill their rebellious kids. It's just an option.

Fuqua is certainly not afraid of using death in other instances. For instance, he notes it's so expensive to keep prisoners in jail for a long time. Needless to say, Fuqua's got an elegant solution:

"We cannot continue to sustain the percentage of our population that is in prison. No prison term should be longer than two years. Prison should be unpleasant and rehabilitative. Anyone that cannot be rehabilitated in two years should be executed."   

So even if you're jailed for two years on a nonviolent crime, they can say "off with your head" in Fuqua's world. I guess that goes along with keeping rebellious kids in check.
Other thoughts from Fuqua:
"The minimum wage should be set at zero. It is simply a lie that raising the minimum wage helps people at the low end of the pay scale."

Yeah, make them work for free. Kind of like they did in the days of slavery. Which means Fuqua would find kindred spirits in Hubbard, the first guy in this post, and another Arkansas pol, Roy Mauch.

Mauch doesn't have much of a problem with slavery, either.

".. If slavery were so God-awful, why didn’t Jesus or Paul condemn it, why was it in the Constitution and why wasn’t there a war before 1861?
The South has always stood by the Constitution and limited government. When one attacks the Confederate Battle Flag, he is certainly denouncing these principles of government as well as Christianity."

I guess the civil war continues to rage, at least in Mauch's mind.

And Mauch had this to say about the 14th amendment, which among other things, granted U.S. citizenship to recently released slaves after the Civil War:

Says Mauch:  "The 14th Amendment completely destroyed the Founders’ concept of limited government and was coerced on this nation by radical people and in my opinion was never legally ratified as required by Article V of the Constitution. It was essentially a Karl Marx concept and would have never come from the pen of Madison or any of the patriots from Virginia."

Who knew Karl Marx was so interested in former slaves and freeing slaves would unleash the scourge of worldwide socialism?   Gee, what right does the government have to say slavery is a bad thing.

All these wacko viewpoints from Arkansas pols are funny, but there's a serious undercurrent. The Arkansas Times notes Fuqua is running for office with help from the Arkansas Republican Party. All of them have supporters in the Republican Party, and in some circles among the Arkansas electorate. And from people in other states as well.

The weird Arkansas politicians seem really into the Constitution, which is nice. In that spirit, I will say they have the First Amendment right to spout their stupidity. But it's still shocking that in this day in age, people in (minor) positions of power could be so ignorant, so bigoted, so whacked out.