The Commentariat -- June 10, 2014

Internal links removed.

Josh Hicks of the Washington Post: "The Department of Veterans Affairs on Monday shed light on the depth of the VA scheduling scandal and substantiated claims that rank-and-file employees were directed to manipulate records. The agency said more than 57,000 new patients have waited at least 90 days for their first appointments and that about 13 percent of VA schedulers indicated they were told to falsify appointment-request dates to give the impression that wait times were shorter than they really were. The information comes from the agency' s internal audit of 731 VA medical centers, which the VA released Monday." ...

... Thomas Burton of the Wall Street Journal: "The Department of Veterans Affairs stopped sending teams of turnaround experts to underperforming hospitals at the same time a growing number of VA facilities showed consistently high death and complication rates, internal agency records and interviews reveal.... Current and former VA doctors say the lag in scrutiny came at a time of turmoil when top managers of the agency, some of whom since have been ousted, played down the utility of measuring specific medical outcomes." CW: The article is firewalled. To access it, if you're not a WSJ subscriber, copy & paste a portion of the lede sentence into Google or another search engine. ...

... Stacy Kaper of the National Journal: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid vowed Monday to take action imminently on expected reforms to the Veterans Affairs Department. The legislation, which was agreed to in principle last week, is still being drafted by Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Arizona Republican John McCain. But Reid promised Monday to bring the bill to the floor as soon as it's ready." ...

     ... CW Note: Alex Rogers of Time: Sanders & McCain introduced the bill yesterday. I can't find any other stories on the status of the bill.

Mark Landler of the New York Times: "President Obama signed an executive order on Monday intended to lessen the college loan burden on nearly five million younger Americans by capping repayments at 10 percent of the borrowers' monthly income. Joined by indebted graduates in the East Room of the White House, Mr. Obama said the spiraling cost of higher education had put 'too big a debt load on too many people'":

Ian Lovett of the New York Times profiles the Las Vegas killers, who were antigovernment extremists "along the lines of militia and white supremacists." Here's a key sentence: When the two began shooting up the WalMart, "One man at the checkout area who was carrying a handgun tried to stop Mr. Miller, but did not notice that Ms. Miller was working in concert with her husband; she shot the man dead." CW: This entire episode is about what is wrong with the right wing. ...

... Charles Pierce: "... these two jamokes allegedly marinated themselves in the stew of guns and paranoia that bubbles daily in the conservative media from fringe radio hosts and chain e-mails all the way up to the polite precincts of the National Review Online and the Fox News Channel. That shouldn't surprise us any more. The enabling of dangerous loons and the empowerment by firearms thereof is simply a staple of conservative politics in this country, yet another fetish object, yet another set of conjuring words for the conservative priesthood, which (always) deplores the activity of a few while realizing in its heart of hearts that it has no political future at the moment, no real substantial constituency, without people like this...." Read the whole post. ...

... Paul Waldman in the Washington Post: "... there are some particular features of conservative political rhetoric today that help create an atmosphere in which violence and terrorism can germinate. The most obvious component is the fetishization of firearms and the constant warnings that government will soon be coming to take your guns. But that's only part of it. Just as meaningful is the conspiracy theorizing that became utterly mainstream once Barack Obama took office.... In our recent history, every election of a Democratic president is followed by a rise in conspiracy-obsessed right-wing populism." ...

     ... CW: The difference here is that in the past, few federal officeholders have fully embraced the insanity. Now, there's a large contingent in the House & some in the Senate who are -- or claim to be -- true believers.

... Adam Weinstein of Gawker features some of the Millers' right-wing Facebook remarks & "likes." A commenter notes that Jerad Miller wrote he would rather die than go to a "fema re-education camp." Thank you, Michele Bachmann and Glenn Beck, et al. ...

... BUT if you are a regular reader of Right Wing News, you will already know that these crazed killers were socialists. (They get this insane rationale from the fact that the original Nazi party was officially the Socialist Democratic party [Sozialdemokratische Partei].) So now every super-crazed winger who does bodily harm is a socialist. Just like Obama. This, then, is the way the "respectable people" of Winger World will try to duck responsibility for their anti-government, anti-Obama, gun-worshipping fascism. The capacity for self-delusion is a bottomless pit. Via Rebecca Schoenkopf of Wonkette, via Charles Pierce. ...

     ... UPDATE: ALSO, they were leftists. "... someone waving around a gun yelling 'this is a revolution' is the very definition of a leftist." CW: This claim is equally absurd. See, for instance, J. J. MacNab's May2014 report on the right-wing Sovereign Movement, which she wrote to help explain the Cliven Bundy standoff with the Bureau of Land Management.

Gregory Korte of USA Today: "Public opposition to the exchange of five Taliban prisoners for captive Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has less to do with Bergdahl himself and more with how President Obama handled the transfer, according to a new USA TODAY/Pew Research Center poll. The poll shows 43% of Americans say it was wrong for Obama to make the deal, compared with 34% who say it was the right thing to do." Those "Republican strategists" (see Helene Cooper remark below) are doing their jobs, & the "liberal media" have dutifully obliged. ...

... Lauren French & John Bresnahan of Politico: "House Republicans came out of a more than hour-long classified briefing by top national security officials on Monday complaining they'd learned nothing new about the incident that has't already been disclosed in the news media. GOP lawmakers, in particular, were upset that an estimated 80 to 90 executive branch officials in the Pentagon, White House and the intelligence agencies, but no members of Congress were informed beforehand, including the chairs of the House and Senate intelligence panels." CW: For why that might be, see Sen. Saxby Chambliss's comments, highlighted in yesterday's Commentariat.

Stupid Congressman of the Week (So Far). Emily Atkin of Think Progress: Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) argues that humans can't cause climate change because dinosaurs became extinct before people were driving around in cars. CW: As Skeptical Science wrote some while back this argument is, "equivalent to seeing a dead body with a knife sticking out the back, then arguing the death must be natural because people died naturally in the past." Also, Miller in the past has blamed God for climate change. Atkin notes, "Miller's home state of Florida also happens to be one of the places in the United States that is most vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate change."

Simon Shuster of Time: "Ukraine's new President Petro Poroshenko wants to see Russia punished for what he calls the 'tragedy' that befell his country this year. But even as Russia has annexed one region of Ukraine and encouraged a violent rebellion in two others, Ukraine does not have the option of breaking off ties with the Kremlin, Poroshenko told Time in his first interview since taking office. His government has no choice but to seek 'an understanding' with Russia, he says, even if for no other reason than the hard reality of Ukraine’s geography."

Ron Fournier of the National Journal claims: "In the 18 months since I began writing columns focused on the presidency, virtually every post critical of Obama has originated from conversations with Democrats. Members of Congress, consultants, pollsters, lobbyists, and executives at think tanks, these Democrats are my Obama-whispers. They respect and admire Obama but believe that his presidency has been damaged by his shortcomings as a leader; his inattention to details of governing; his disengagement from the political process and from the public; his unwillingness to learn on the job; and his failure to surround himself with top-shelf advisers who are willing to challenge their boss as well as their own preconceived notions." ...

     ... CW: I'd be surprised if Fournier had any real Democratic contacts. This just sounds like some nobodies griping & Fournier loving it. The "charges" are pretty vague. As for this being some sort of "news," progressives -- myself included -- & some Democratic officials have been criticizing Obama since the transition.

Helene Cooper, who reported last week on the men in Bowe Bergdahl's unit who came to the Times via "a Republican strategist" to accuse Bergdahl of deserting said the men "had clearly been coached." The original report, by Cooper & others, is here. CW: Nice use of the passive voice there, Helene. Whoevah do you supposed coached the men? Let's see. As Rosie Gray & Kate Nocera of BuzzFeed reported last week, the guy hooking up the soldiers with the media was Richard Grenell, a Crazy John Bolton protoge' & former Romney campaign aide.

CW: It's true that the Washington Post editorial pages serve as a retirement home for ex-Bush aides & other riffraff. Still, isn't it time to retire George Will? In a column last week he complained that "... capacious definitions of sexual assault that can include not only forcible sexual penetration but also nonconsensual touching," and that universities are encouraging women to make false claims of sexual assault by "mak[ing] victimhood a coveted status that confers privileges."

All Hillary All the Time, Ctd.

Alexandra Jaffe of the Hill: "Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton aggressively defended her handling of the 2012 Benghazi attack and declined to offer any evaluation of what, if anything, she would've done differently. 'No,' Clinton said, when asked by ABC's Diane Sawyer if she 'missed the moment' to prevent the attacks."

Alexandra Jaffe: "Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is pushing back on former Defense Secretary Robert Gates' assertion that her opposition to the 2007 Iraq troop surge was politically motivated. 'I think he perhaps either missed the context or the meaning because I did oppose the surge,' Clinton told ABC's Diane Sawyer in an interview that will air Monday night. 'The public had given up,' she added. 'This is not politics in electoral, political terms. This is politics in the sense of the American public has to support commitments like this. I opposed the surge.'" ...

... Chris Good of ABC News runs down "21 revealing quotes from the Sawyer interview.

Noam Scheiber of the New Republic describes Hillary & Barack's "marriage of convenience." CW: This is politics as usual, even "normal human relations" as usual, & is the way most reasonable officials negotiate disagreements with members of their own party. (Do you publicly rebuke your spouse or your good friend when s/he says something you disagree with? Probably not.)

Joni Ernst's Husband Is Just as Classy as She Is. Evan McMorris-Santoro of BuzzFeed: "Last year, the husband of Iowa Republican state Sen. Joni Ernst, her party’s nominee for Senate made his opinion known about Hillary Clinton on Facebook. 'Truly more of a hag now than when she was 1st Lady!” Gail Ernst wrote, sharing a Benghazi-related image." The Ernst campaign has criticized her Democratic opponent for "using imagery that ... 'degrades and insults Iowa women.'"

Congressional Races

Cameron Joseph & Alexandra Jaffe of the Hill: "Voters go to the polls on Tuesday in Arkansas, Maine, Nevada, North Dakota, South Carolina and Virginia. Tea Party challenges to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) are the marquee contests, and no federal races are on the ballot in North Dakota or the Arkansas runoffs."

Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina was once thought to be among the Republican incumbents most vulnerable this year to a Tea Party challenge. But the most pressing question on Tuesday is not whether he will finish first in the party primary, but whether he can avoid a runoff by capturing more than 50 percent of the vote in a seven-person field."

Beyond the Beltway

Laura Vozella & Michael Laris of the Washington Post: "Virginia Republicans snatched control of the state Senate on Monday, immediately ending a budget stalemate by pushing Democrats to agree to pass a spending plan without Medicaid expansion, Gov. Terry McAuliffe's top priority. The power shift forced Senate Democrats to yield after a protracted standoff that had threatened to shut down state government in less than a month, according to several lawmakers with direct knowledge of the deal. Democratic negotiators agreed in a closed-door meeting Monday to pass a budget without expanding health coverage to 400,000 low-income Virginians." ...

... CW: David Firestone of the New York Times is as pissed at the Virginia state senator who quit the senate so Republicans would have the majority they need to stop Medicaid expansion in the state: "Phillip Puckett, resigned today, paving the way for his daughter, Martha Puckett Ketron, to win an appointment as a domestic court judge..., proving yet again that personal ambition and venality often outweigh political principle.... Until earlier this afternoon, it looked as though Mr. Puckett would take a job as deputy director of the state's tobacco commission, which is led by a Republican legislator. But he ultimately walked away from the offer after furious Democrats accused him of accepting a bribe." ...

... Jamelle Bouie in Slate: "Puckett didn't just sell out his Democratic colleagues, he sold out thousands of his constituents -- indifferent to their health and well-being -- for little more than some cheap nepotism. No, the Republicans he helped aren't much better; they would rather wage an ideological crusade against Obama than aid the voters who support them. Still, say what you will about right-wing extremism, at least it's an ethos. And given the choice, I would rather have an opponent with conviction than an ally who couldn't be bothered to care."

AP: "U.S. Sen. Harry Reid has sold his home in Searchlight and several mining claims to a gold mining company."

News Ledes

AP: "Israel's parliament on Tuesday chose Reuven Rivlin, a veteran nationalist politician and supporter of the Jewish settlement movement, as the country's next president, putting a man opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state into the ceremonial but influential post."

New York Times: "Martha Hyer, an Oscar-nominated movie actress who starred alongside Humphrey Bogart, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and Shirley MacLaine in the 1950s and 1960s, died on May 31 at her home in Santa Fe, N.M. She was 89."

Washington Post: "Five American troops were killed in southern Afghanistan in a rare friendly fire airstrike that struck a team of Afghan and U.S. troops conducting a security operation ahead of Saturday's presidential runoff vote, U.S. and Afghan officials familiar with the incident said Tuesday."

Comments

[Patrick]

From the Politico piece on briefing the House on Bergdahl:

"It strikes me as unfortunate that they could have 80 to 90 people in the administration and not be able to trust a single Republican or Democrat in the House or the Senate,” said Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.)."

Yes. Yes it is unfortunate.

Greg Walden & Friends sound much like Uriah Heep, 'umble, and perplexed at being so.

BTW, those "80 or 90 in the administration" were mostly people involved in making the operation work, not people who needed to be stroked to be made to feel important.

Whiners.

[JJG]

Re: Victim status; Good call, Mr Wills; in my home town the "vic stat" has gotten so out of hand that women are starting to wear "R"s on their clothes. They hang "R" cards from their rear view mirrors for prime parking spots. There is a "R" section in the tonier restaurants. One young lady went so far as to have an "R" tattoo on her arm. Yep; nothing like "vic stat" to make a gal happy.
Asswipe.

[Ken Winkes]

A quick morning thought: In the sense of producing anything of worth, hasn't George Will been long-since retired?

Since he stopped writing about baseball, which he did know something about, his political writing career has taken the shape of Glenn Beck's rantings, so empty of practical content, of real-world application, that he has had to push his opinionating to greater and greater extremes to generate any interest at all in what he has to say.

Will used to provide some intellectual pretension to his political and social rot; in that role, he was a Brooks precursor, but unlike the mealy-mouthed Brooks (see yesterday's column: What do you really think, David?) he was always mostly about style, which succeeded when his well-crafted sentences disguised the absence of real-world content or the fundamental flaws in his thinking. When the style didn't cut it, he just sounded whiny. (I admit, once I heard him performing TV punditry I had even more trouble scaling the social barrier of nasal condescension that his manner erected between us).

Recently Krugman referred to my favorite Will's-over-the-edge moment, when a year or two back Will said trains were a socialist plot because they were (my words) common carriers.

Seems to me that anyone who says dumb stuff like that has long since retired.

But if Bezos retired all the nitwits who opinionate for his paper, what would he fill the space with? There'd be lots of white space.

[PD Pepe]

"Time for Congress to investigate Bill Gate's coup." Whether one could call it a coup or not it's something I have been wondering about for some time as, obviously, has Diane Ravitch who addresses her concerns in this piece today. Would love for some feedback from Our Gang on this.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diane-ravitch/time-for-congress-to-inve_b_5473992.html

[Ken Winkes]

Thanks for the invite, PD. Don't have time this AM for all my thoughts on Common Core, so will just list a few.

Since she she rejected his Bush years and returned to the fold of reason, Diane Ravitch is a genuine American Hero.

I can understand the impulse toward a common curriculum. States have had them in hand for a long time and I see not reason that, closely connected as we are in so many ways, the concept should not be expanded. Since we are heading toward the Great Collective, we would be better served if we acknowledge it. As I've opined before, it's a matter of what kind of collective we want, as Ravitch says, how we get there, and who we put in charge of it. Since there is a power (read: money) vacuum in education, those with oodles of it like Gates have undue influence. We grant them their status by default. That said, local control has its own problems; it is, in many places and cases, just another way of saying God-centered ignorance. We know what that looks like and it's not good. Vide, Bobby Jindal's notion of what makes a fine school system, or Michigan funneling tax dollars to religious schools that remain medieval.

When it comes to the Common core itself, my cursory look at it did not repel me. It actually asks that kids think a little. What does bother me is the silly testing that we attach to it. As Ravitch says, testing students the way we do, shoving them all through the knothole, is unrealistic and the predictable results ("failing" schools) provides the Right with more ammunition to support privatization. Curricula are always an ideal and should be presented and treated as such. Whey they are not, tragedy follows.

There's an irony here, of course, one maybe fundamental to democracy. By demanding the same of everyone when we know they cannot possibly produce it, we end up splintering our social order even more.

Because we have not done a good job of distinguishing between the Core and how we wish to use it, it has become a wedge issue for both the Left and Right. But the only one to gain is the Right, who see in its pursuit weakened unions, more private schools and more money in their pockets.

[Akhilleus]

Wingnut Warming.

Greg Sargent in the WaPo article Marie links above puts on the kid gloves to talk about the startling atrocity that is Right Wing World and the dangerous lunatics it courts and supports.

He even goes so far as to toss out a Both Sides Do It sop to the wingnuts who are already slathering by the fifth sentence, especially when they realize that Sargent is, very gingerly and politely wondering whether, maybe, in some way, possibly, could it be that right wing crazy talk and those who abide, encourage, and indulge in it, say, like some politicians, could play a role in the insanity we're seeing on all sides.

He does finally screw his courage to the sticking place and gets on with it.

The simple fact that anyone at this late date and after so many vicious and deadly examples of right-wing violence has to try to make nice with these idiots is a demonstration of how successful wingnuts have been in neutering so much of the well deserved criticism due them, which in turn allows for even more orgies of anti-government rhetoric, hatred spewing, gun collecting, conspiracy theory invention, and murder.

Perhaps many Republican politicians roll their eyes when the 'baggers and their revolutionary brothers and sisters in hate start frothing at the mouth and chewing the grass, like the owner of a vicious pit bull who watches the snarling animal run back and forth in the yard barking at anything that moves. But just like that owner, when the pit bull attacks people, kills children, and bites and maims innocents, they are responsible for the outcome.

But that analogy is not nearly exact enough. NOW take an owner of pit bulls (many--tens and hundreds of thousands) and let's say that owner throws raw meat to the pack on a regular basis and when not baiting the animals, plays loud, raucous music over speakers in the yard designed to keep them on edge and ready to attack and kill.

Now you have a worthy analogy.

The owners are people like Ted Cruz and Glenn Beck, the NRA, ClearChannel, Mitch McConnell, and any other politicians and pundits who profit off the hatred and insanity. I don't actually watch Glenn Beck, because....well, Glenn Beck. But I do get to see enough to make me sick. What I've missed, however, by not tuning in as regularly as the rabid ones, is the real rubber to the road of right-wing demagoguery. Reading over them this morning, I can see how someone raised on this sort of thing could shoot a cop in the head point blank and not blink (from Media Matters):

Beck pouring gasoline (he says it was water) over a man tied to a chair and screaming "C'mon Obama, just set us on fire! We know that's your plan."

Beck indulging an extended reverie about how wonderful it would be to force (then Speaker) Nancy Pelosi to drink poison and die.

Beck portraying the president and Democrats as blood sucking vampires who are ready to come and "get you" and telling viewers to plunge stakes into their hearts.

Staring into the camera and whispering to viewers that Obama has a secret plan to murder him.

Inviting followers to embrace armed insurrection, pick up guns (before they're confiscated), and kill someone before they're killed themselves.

Suggesting that the revolution to come (soon) will be far worse than the American Revolution in that millions will perish.

And on, and on.

And that's just ONE GUY. One mental defective with a huge megaphone. Now add to that all the other loons and violent droolers on TV and talk radio, add to them the politicians and more mainstream pundits like George (women love to be raped) Will and Fox, sending this rotten effluence over many years.

It is possible that the Millers could have been listening to this stuff every day of their adult lives? Does this mean that Republican politicians and Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh are responsible for the deaths of those cops? At one point I would have been inclined to offer a highly qualified "no" but there is so much of this stuff all the time, every day and every night. There is SOME culpability here, there has to be.

But just reading through Miller's Facebook rants makes clear just how deep the insanity goes. Far too deep for common sense to penetrate.

Just a couple of examples makes the point. He raves on, like so many of these people, about Liberty and Freedom without any sense that he knows what those words mean. They're just buzzwords for 'baggers, mostly. Then he makes the leap to dying for Freedom, and Death by Cop, and how everyone's coming to get them because they hate them for their love of Freedom (does that sound like George Bush or what?). But clearly no one was coming for them. No one came for them. They were free to say the craziest shit and no one was knocking down their doors. If they had, five people would be alive today. This idiot's own words prove the falseness of his delusions. The delusions promoted daily all across Right Wing World.

But the right-wing echo chamber and people who make money off fear and paranoia and violence kept the pressure on. And are doing it still. The Millers were not a right-wing creation. No! They were socialists and Democrats. The same way the shootings in California and Connecticut and Virginia and Colorado and every other damn place were all unconnected one in a million incidents.

Republican politicians and rank and file wingers who don't believe in global warming only need to look at what they've started to see the very real possibility of changing a climate to the point where it becomes toxic and deadly from all the viciousness and lies released into its atmosphere.

The poison storm clouds rained down on Las Vegas the other day. Where will the next wingnut warming event take place?

[Akhilleus]

Noted wingnut whack job (really, we, or rather I, should stop referring to these people as if they're just bumbling idiots drooling down their shirt fronts; these people have real influence for evil in the world, as we see on a regular basis) Alex Jones, is furious that Jerad Miller's Facebook page is stinking with references to his (Jones') screeds on guns, government, and conspiracies. His answer to the indications that the killers drew inspiration from him?

It's all a conspiracy to delegitmize his important work.. That's right. Facebook is in bed with the government and the myriad references to Jones and his website were planted to make him look bad. Because in truth, he's the walking and talking shade of Thomas fucking Jefferson.

The beauty of conspiracy theories, of course, is that the fact there is no proof--in most cases, the fact that there is proof the other way--actually serves to make your case stronger. If you posit that the government is out to get you but there's no evidence, isn't that proof of how nefarious and effective are the dark powers arrayed against you? There's no proof! It must be true!

Sadly, NPR, last week, in an interview with their social sciences correspondent Shankar Vedantam, reported that about half of all Americans entertain at least one conspiracy theory. 11% believe that the government has ordered a changeover to compact florescent light bulbs because they are being used as mind control devices!

Nonetheless, that many people believing in (often) dangerous nonsense is a tad frightening.

Oh, and speaking of influence, it's interesting that the Millers draped a Gadsden flag over the body of one of the cops they murdered. Since the rise of the Tea Party, it's been their most public symbol. Any wonder these murderers felt at home with 'bagger ideology?

[James Singer]

The brief Shankar Vedantam piece, linked by Ak, confirms my theory that there is a nefarious cabal of second-tier comedians concocting conspiracy theories on a weekly, if not daily, basis.
And I suspect there’s a little-known “book” in Las Vegas where one can wager one how many Facebook hits or Twitter tweets each new theory will receive in the first 72 hours after it is released. It is all about money, after all. Everything is about money.

[James Singer]

And in Washington Redskins mascot news, a friend just sent a link to an ad he says will run during tonight's NBA finals.

http://www.barstoolsports.com/m/dmv/super-page/here-is-the-anti-redskins-ad-that-will-run-during-the-nba-finals-tonight/

[safari]

Ok, forget my "threshold" theory yesterday about how much public gun violence we can take before taking action. According to an article in the Daily Kos via the Huffington Post, since Newtown we have averaged one school shooting per school week. That's counting approximately 54 school weeks since the Newtown massacre and 74 SCHOOL SHOOTINGS SINCE. This is of course counting the school today in Oregon (I know it's hard to keep track of these school shootings right?).

Can't say much more than just note that these statistics are a clear sign of collective insanity to remain indifferent in face of such senseless violence.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/10/school-shootings-since-newtown_n_5480209.html?1402422950

On another note, given that the "concerned parents" of the 90s pushed so hard to get certain artists and games marked with their age limit stickers or "explicit lyrics" messages to save the kids ears from such diabolical messaging, where are they now to stigmatize and censure the right wing radio jockeys or presenters that promote violence and bodily harm against others in our society. Why can't we resign Rush and Beck to after midnight slots where their vitriol will only reach the "grown ups" that deem the ideas strong enough to stay up for. If Eminem and Dr. Dre's lyrics talking about shootout in the 'hood are dangerous enough to regulate their music, how can these right wingers filter their filth throughout the media without regulatory restrictions? If we accept the arguments that violent video games and violent lyrics can promote violence, then that logic has to include the violence promoted by right wing media. But in reality, enforcing such regulations of old white wingers with powerful microphones would only heightened the shrill screams of oppression. We're stuck with this shit.

[PD Pepe]

Thank you, Ken, for your input. There was nothing in your post that
I disagreed with. Since any hope we have in this country rests in the education of the next generation this situation is so very important. I'm trying hard not to lose hope, trying hard not to go off half cocked over another school shooting today, but something is happening in this country that's so frightening and crazy I almost feel I don't recognize it anymore. And yet here I am living in a quiet place where the birds sing, our gardens are plentiful, there are no bombs bursting, no gun fire heard, our only enemies are the bunnies and varmints who try and get to our strawberries and other edibles and you would think, hell, what does she have to yummer about, but like all of you here we can't live in a vacuum –––life interferes if, indeed, one is awake and one cares–––about–-some-––things–- bigger––than–-ourselves. Or as safari has so aptly coined it–-"We're stuck in this shit." We need to deal with it.

Enjoy your evening.