{"id":97354,"date":"2016-09-24T09:18:32","date_gmt":"2016-09-24T16:18:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?p=97354"},"modified":"2016-09-24T09:18:32","modified_gmt":"2016-09-24T16:18:32","slug":"todays-gun-slaughter-brought-to-you-by-the-nra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2016\/09\/todays-gun-slaughter-brought-to-you-by-the-nra.html","title":{"rendered":"Today’s Gun Slaughter Brought to You by the NRA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Five dead up the road from my house.<\/a><\/p>\n

Looked at Ted Cruz\u2019 highly principled endorsement of the man he declared a \u201cserial philanderer,\u201d a \u201cpathological liar,\u201d \u201cutterly amoral,\u201d and a \u201csniveling coward\u201d; who insulted his wife\u2019s looks; who insinuated Cruz\u2019s father was involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Here\u2019s what mattered to Cruz re: SCOTUS:<\/p>\n

First, and most important, the Supreme Court. For anyone concerned about the Bill of Rights \u2014 free speech, religious liberty, the Second Amendment \u2014 the Court hangs in the balance.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Note, O Prolifer, what is not of interest, what is never mentioned, in Cruz\u2019 endorsement, just as it was not of interest and never mentioned in Trump\u2019s convention speech. Hint: It starts with \u201cA\u201d. As to what is mentioned, as ever Trump maps to Hillary completely in the evils he endorses and only departs from her in his ability to lie with greater ease. For of course, Trump is the one on record urging that we burn the first amendment for Muslims and that the press be crushed and punished for criticizing him. If you are worried about freedom of religion and free speech you can\u2019t support Trump\u2026 unless, of course, you mean \u201cfree speech and freedom of religion for me but not for thee\u201d.<\/p>\n

And finally, there is the precious Second Amendment that is not in the slightest bit of danger because Hillary, no more than Obama, has any intention of Taking the Guns. It is well to think about this false prophecy just a bit. For years we were told that Obama was just about to take all the guns. If we elected Obama, gun confiscation was a done deal. Sandy Hook was a plot to take all the guns. Jade Helm was a scheme to take all the guns.<\/p>\n

Reality:<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

Like all the other visible-from-space wrong prophecies of right wing scaremongers such as adulterer Dinesh D\u2019Souza<\/a>,<\/p>\n

\n

1. Gas was supposed to cost $6.05 per\u00a0gallon.<\/h4>\n

\n<\/p>

2. Unemployment was supposed to be stuck at over\u00a08%<\/h4>\n

\n<\/p>

3. The stock market was supposed to\u00a0crash<\/h4>\n

\n<\/p>

4. The entire U.S. economy was supposed to\u00a0collapse<\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n

you\u2019d think there\u2019d be some small ability to think, \u201cGolly, this forecast was dead wrong and this guy is a documented cheater. \u00a0Perhaps I should re-examine my assumptions and see if I might have made a mistake\u201d. \u00a0But no. \u00a0All the tropes dragged out last time are re-packaged by the same con artist and eagerly consumed again<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And so we are darkly warned that the big threat in America when it comes to guns is not the immense number of lives unnecessarily lost to gunfire, but the Bogeyman who is coming to Take All the Guns.<\/p>\n

And it is believed so devoutly that the Gun Cult feels a perfectly imaginary and hypochondriac sense of persecution even while it is wandering around in public at Chipotle\u2019s and Home Depot, frightening normal people with loud and deeply insecure displays of their steel manhood. \u00a0In one of the little historical ironies of Washington history, Spokane announced that it is thinking of making itself a \u201csecond amendment sanctuary\u201d<\/a> so that open carry kooks with persecution fantasies can have the freedoms they already enjoy but still feel like they are Standing Up to the Man. Never mind that open carry is already legal in Washington.<\/a> Kooks with persecution complexes need extra babying.<\/p>\n

And so a kook open carried a gun right into Cascade Mall and did his part to ensure that, yet again, the gun slaughter rate in America will vastly outstrip the rest of the civilized world and arrive safely by year\u2019s end at 33,000 again. And again, all the rationalizations and excuses and lies will be told to justify making sure that nothing whatsoever stands in the way of achieving that goal. And achieving that goal is far more important than any supposed interest in \u201cAll Lives Matter\u201d. Because the goal is making sure there is another lucrative year for the arms industry.<\/p>\n

That, not abortion, is what mattered to Ted Cruz in his rationalization for endorsing Trump.<\/p>\n

The \u201cprolife\u201d Right has embraced a fashion that somehow allies gun fetishism with being prolife. It imagines that the big danger is gun confiscation and not gun slaughter. \u00a0Screwtape smiles:<\/p>\n

The use of fashions in thought is to distract men from their real dangers. We direct the fashionable outcry of each generation against those vices of which it is in the least danger, and fix its approval on the virtue that is nearest the vice which we are trying to make endemic. The game is to have them all running around with fire extinguishers whenever there\u2019s a flood; and all crowding to that side of the boat which is already nearly gone under.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Five dead up the road from my house. Looked at Ted Cruz\u2019 highly principled endorsement of the man he declared a \u201cserial philanderer,\u201d a \u201cpathological liar,\u201d \u201cutterly amoral,\u201d and a \u201csniveling coward\u201d; who insulted his wife\u2019s looks; who insinuated Cruz\u2019s father was involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Here\u2019s what mattered to Cruz […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[594],"class_list":["post-97354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-gun-violence-is-a-prolife-issue-too"],"yoast_head":"\nToday's Gun Slaughter Brought to You by the NRA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Five dead up the road from my house. 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