I think I’ve tipped my hand that I’m a bit of a political junkie. Between exposure to the news media and the blogosphere, it’s hard not to be if you’ve got the least predisposition.
But every so often, something goes {snap!} in my brain and I just can’t take it any more – “it” being the hype, the hypocrisy, the overall histrionics of those we elect to public office. This latest occasion was triggered [sic] by the events in Tucson and the realization not only that no unified call for gun control would come out of it but also that the gun nuts would clamor for even more license to shoot first and ask questions later.
And so the {snap!} resulted in my not bothering to watch Obama’s state-of-the-disunion address or even read reports of it. And I wasn’t surprised to later learn that not one breath of that speech had been spent on our national obsession with firearms.
One of Bill Maher’s guests last week was Ronnie Raygun’s old budget director David Stockman, who has either made a sharp turn to the left or, more likely, stood still while the GOP veered even further right. He had the guts to flat-out state that the 2nd Amendment was a product of its era and that today gun ownership is no longer even necessary within the context of its original intent – that of guaranteeing a free militia. Those who defend the right to own guns either tautologically fall back on the right itself, or else claim the need for armed defense against their own government.
The NRA insists that it’s people, not guns, inflicting any harm. Well, guess what? It’ll be people, not guns, responsible for any necessary rebellion against repression that gun nuts feel so determined to stockpile weapons for. Did an armed citizenry force Ben Ali out of Tunisia? Will guns overthrow Mubarak in Egypt? Or is it just a matter of putting enough angry bodies in the streets with rocks and molotov cocktails to make their will known? But as with Rep. Cohen’s ill-advised comparison of Republican untruths to Nazi propaganda, say anything as often as the gun lobby does and everyone will believe it. Meanwhile, 2A supporters who envision themselves manning the barricades are living in fantasyland – or more likely frontierland, complete with coonskin caps.
So what is the real state of our disunion? It’s “situation normal, all fucked up.” I doubt that anything will ever unsnap my bemused outrage over creationists or teabaggers or stupidity in general. But as far as I’m concerned, the political process is beyond hoping for rational results – and beyond getting worked up over.
But every so often, something goes {snap!} in my brain and I just can’t take it any more – “it” being the hype, the hypocrisy, the overall histrionics of those we elect to public office. This latest occasion was triggered [sic] by the events in Tucson and the realization not only that no unified call for gun control would come out of it but also that the gun nuts would clamor for even more license to shoot first and ask questions later.
And so the {snap!} resulted in my not bothering to watch Obama’s state-of-the-disunion address or even read reports of it. And I wasn’t surprised to later learn that not one breath of that speech had been spent on our national obsession with firearms.
One of Bill Maher’s guests last week was Ronnie Raygun’s old budget director David Stockman, who has either made a sharp turn to the left or, more likely, stood still while the GOP veered even further right. He had the guts to flat-out state that the 2nd Amendment was a product of its era and that today gun ownership is no longer even necessary within the context of its original intent – that of guaranteeing a free militia. Those who defend the right to own guns either tautologically fall back on the right itself, or else claim the need for armed defense against their own government.
The NRA insists that it’s people, not guns, inflicting any harm. Well, guess what? It’ll be people, not guns, responsible for any necessary rebellion against repression that gun nuts feel so determined to stockpile weapons for. Did an armed citizenry force Ben Ali out of Tunisia? Will guns overthrow Mubarak in Egypt? Or is it just a matter of putting enough angry bodies in the streets with rocks and molotov cocktails to make their will known? But as with Rep. Cohen’s ill-advised comparison of Republican untruths to Nazi propaganda, say anything as often as the gun lobby does and everyone will believe it. Meanwhile, 2A supporters who envision themselves manning the barricades are living in fantasyland – or more likely frontierland, complete with coonskin caps.
So what is the real state of our disunion? It’s “situation normal, all fucked up.” I doubt that anything will ever unsnap my bemused outrage over creationists or teabaggers or stupidity in general. But as far as I’m concerned, the political process is beyond hoping for rational results – and beyond getting worked up over.
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