OK, admittedly a sensational headline…but I did dream it! Let me explain. Saturday, my “wife” Sabine flew into Los Angeles from El Salvador on a short layover before returning to Germany and eventually Africa. We had a wonderful lobster lunch on the marina:
Back to LAX for the long trip home…as shot from my sunroof
And now for the reason you clicked this…the dream headline in the title. Before I left for the airport to pick Sabine up, I posted the following on facebook:
After 1 day, the post had nearly 60 comments, so it clearly struck a nerve with people. The lone right wing gun advocate who commented however, was no match for my liberal friends. After a while, I left the fray, and let the interwebs duke it out. I devote plenty of space on this blog to my views on Sarah Palin as well as gun control. My positions are well documented. Regular readers may remember the eyewitness accounts that Sabine and her friends provided from the Virginia Tech shootings several years ago:
I stand by my original statement on facebook above. I even blogged about the lunacy of Sarah Palin’s use of gun crosshairs in my April Fool’s Day post last year. While Sarah Palin is not directly culpable for the actions of a lone nutjob, her words do have meaning and she should be held accountable (if only to never be elected to public office). She’s clearly backtracking, as evidenced by the removal of certain tweets and messages. Meanwhile, bigoted teabaggers like Rush Limbaugh, are pulling out all the stops to direct attention away from themselves and their dangerous rhetoric. Kudos to Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik for having the balls to call out these cowards on their vitriol.
Here’s the victim of this attack herself, Gabby Giffords, prophetically admonishing Sarah Palin on her evil actions and how they have consequences!
Here’s the victim of this attack herself, Gabby Giffords, prophetically admonishing Sarah Palin on her evil actions and how they have consequences!
Who’s next Sarah?
As psychologist and neuroscientist Drew Weston said, “Saturday was not the first time Gabby Giffords — or countless other lawmakers, candidates, and elected officials, including President Obama — was confronted at a campaign rally or town hall meeting by gun-toting bullies [sic, Republicans], whose primary goal (at least until this weekend) was intimidation. That bringing a concealed weapon within that proximity to an elected official could be legal in the world’s longest-lasting democracy is both surreal and shameful — and now it threatens that democracy.“
In my opinion, Keith Olbermann summed it up best:
Here’s a smattering of the nearly 60 comments from my facebook page. They speak for themselves:
In the Daily Beast today, Howard Kurtz says “Don’t Blame Sarah Palin“, but as John Cory points out:
“Mr. Kurtz is wrong. The killer is not “a lone nutjob.” He is one of us, clothed and fed on perpetual war and the dialog of destruction.
We have become a nation of, by …and for perpetual war. Perpetual war is our addiction and our language, and as Kurtz so chillingly admits – war is the metaphor of politics and business and daily discourse.
But I tell you that a nation of perpetual war and constant fear eventually succumbs to self-hatred and self-loathing. It becomes consumed by the value of extremism in the maintenance of empty empire through the deceit of language. A nation of perpetual war numbs itself to violence by constant repetition of the rhetoric of death and mayhem and the slogans of militarism. A nation of perpetual war does not value human life – but rather the hollow rhetoric about human life.
Mr. Kurtz and others would have us avert our eyes and avoid looking into the mirror and facing the reflection of our words and deeds.
I can only imagine what Mr. Kurtz and others would have written had the shooter been named Mohammed Abdullah.
Christina Taylor Greene was 9 years old. She was born on a day of death and madness, September 11, 2001, and she died on a day of death and madness. She is, in the flippant jargon of perpetual war – collateral damage.
Words have power.
Yesterday, 20 human beings were shot and 6 human beings were killed.”
We have become a nation of, by …and for perpetual war. Perpetual war is our addiction and our language, and as Kurtz so chillingly admits – war is the metaphor of politics and business and daily discourse.
But I tell you that a nation of perpetual war and constant fear eventually succumbs to self-hatred and self-loathing. It becomes consumed by the value of extremism in the maintenance of empty empire through the deceit of language. A nation of perpetual war numbs itself to violence by constant repetition of the rhetoric of death and mayhem and the slogans of militarism. A nation of perpetual war does not value human life – but rather the hollow rhetoric about human life.
Mr. Kurtz and others would have us avert our eyes and avoid looking into the mirror and facing the reflection of our words and deeds.
I can only imagine what Mr. Kurtz and others would have written had the shooter been named Mohammed Abdullah.
Christina Taylor Greene was 9 years old. She was born on a day of death and madness, September 11, 2001, and she died on a day of death and madness. She is, in the flippant jargon of perpetual war – collateral damage.
Words have power.
Yesterday, 20 human beings were shot and 6 human beings were killed.”
repeal, paving the way for the 
was so nice having her here these last two weeks. I miss her already. (She just called to tell me 
that she saw 
of brain matter in a minute, but here’s a quick recap of the weekend:
What you may not know however, is that she is my wife! Yes, it’s true. I’ve told this story before, but it bears repeating. We were “married” in a small civil ceremony in Florence, Italy on August 19, 2000. The ceremony was officiated by the great great grandniece of the 
