Ammosexuals, "Big Game" Hunters and Domestic Terrorists

American Gun Fondlers Association

Americans love their guns. They clutch their pearls and gasp at the mere mention of any kind of gun control. Doctors want to classify gun violence as a public health issue, because bullets kill and cripple and maim. Cue pearl clutchers. Some people would like to see background checks tightened, and prohibit the mentally ill from buying guns. Gasp. Gasp. Gasp.

So here we have a shopping trip in 'Murica today. "Open Carry" enthusiasts take their rifles to Target.

If I ran across any of these people while shopping, I'd leave the store immediately. Do you really think I'd stop to figure out whether these are "good guys with guns" or bad? Nope. I'm outta there.  Same goes for a restaurant. Leave my food on the table and go. Any establishment that allows these open carry nuts on their premises deserves to lose my business.

Fortunately, I haven't seen this in my neck of the woods yet.  I keep thinking about the story of the two-year-old who shot his mother in Wal Mart. She had her gun in a special zippered purse compartment. Supposed to prevent just this kind of accident. She's still dead.

We are always hearing about accidents involving firearms. Many of these accidents involve small children. Many involve people who are supposedly well-trained to prevent such accidents. I have my own gun accident story to tell.

Back in 1979 I was married and expecting my first child. Mister Motherunit, who we will refer to as Kingfish, was working at the county jail as a correctional officer.  The COs there didn't carry guns, but there were a lot of wannabe cops there and guns were a big thing with them.  Kingfish came home with a .38 special revolver one day. I was less than thrilled, but Kingfish just loved his new toy. We had to register the gun with the city of Cleveland, and I had my own gun permit with my picture on it and everything.

One fine day, I was sitting on the bed reading a book. Our Irish Setter was snoozing on the bed at my feet. Kingfish is sitting in a corner of the bedroom fondling cleaning his gun. Then...

BOOM!!!!

The gun had discharged. Incredibly loud. Not like the pop-pop-pop you hear on TV. The dog jumps up, flies under the bed. I have no idea how a full-grown Irish Setter could fit under there, but he did. Kingfish & I jump up."What the fuck? What the FUCK??" I hollered. He couldn't hear me. I couldn't hear what he was saying, as our ears were ringing so badly. We see a bullet hole in the wall, just about a foot from where I had been sitting.

We had some real asshole neighbors at the time. If they heard this (how could they not hear it?) they might call the police. We decided to get out of there for a while. We went for a ride in the car as our hearing eventually returned and our blood pressure numbers went back to something resembling normal. There weren't any cops there when we got back, and no neighbors said anything to us. We had dodged a bullet, so to speak.

I had plenty to say. Top on my list was "Who the fuck cleans a loaded gun?" Another was "Your aim was about 12 inches off!" He really had no counter-arguments. It wasn't long before he found a buyer and the gun was gone.

So, there's my story. Fortunately nobody got hurt or killed.  Way too many of these stories don't end so happily. Here's just a small sampling. 

Big Game Hunters

or Douchebags With Too Much Money

Cecil the lion is all over the news now. A tame, friendly mature lion who lived in a national park in Zimbabwe, was lured off of his safe reservation and shot with a crossbow by dickless wonder Walter Palmer. He was wounded by the arrow. Forty hours later, Palmer finished the poor creature off with a gun, then skinned and beheaded him. 

Palmer is not the first rich asshole to come to Africa and kill an endangered animal just for a trophy. Canned hunts have been around for a while.  He's just the face of this entitled little club that has captured the attention of the internet. I don't understand this at all. There is no real hunting skill involved. "Guides" assist by practically leading the animals to these hunters. Big cats, rhinos, elephants and giraffes are all targets. Giraffes! Who the fuck would want to kill a giraffe?

The pressure is on to put an end to this kind of "hunting" and make it illegal to export trophies such as heads, skins or tusks. Perhaps the rich guys will be less inclined to participate in this "sport" if they don't have grisly animal parts to display on their walls. One can only hope. Real men shoot animals with a camera. Real men work to preserve endangered species and make life better for all animals. Hug an animal shelter worker today.

Domestic Terrorists

A lot of people would like to believe that "terrorists" are all middle-eastern Muslim nutjobs. 

Or not. These white, christian, confederate flag wavers are home-grown and scary as hell. Would tighter gun control keep weapons out of the hands of people like this? Maybe, maybe not. I do know that Australia responded to their gun problem with some very strong laws, and it worked. I'll let comedian Jim Jefferies tell you the story.  He's hilarious. He's also right, IMO.

Speaking of home-grown terrorists. I believe American cities need to be a little bit more selective when hiring police officers. Take the case of Sandra Bland. If this isn't terrorism, what is? People should not have to be afraid of their own police officers.

 It's "Protect and Serve" not "Book 'em Danno" 

Why am I scared? I'm white. Well, they seem to be picking on black people right now, but who's to say that some cop might see my bumper stickers and have an issue with one or two of them? Would a Republican cop decide to rough up an old white lady for her Obama magnet?

Even if they're leaving white people alone, it's still wrong that they do this to people of color. It disgusts me what happened to Sandra Bland. She didn't signal a lane change. BFD. Nobody signals a lane change. So, basically, she gets pulled over for a DWB (Driving While Black).

Now, if you know anything about police training, you know that they are trained to DE-escalate a potentially violent situation.  They are taught ways to get people to calm the fuck down. This is part of their job.  Officer Brian Encina did the exact opposite of what he was trained to do. He took every opportunity to escalate the situation. If you watch the dash-cam video, you will see that Sandra wasn't all that uncooperative. The officer was being a dick, and went way over the line. Sandra didn't even deserve a ticket. Hardly even worth a warning. Now, she's dead.

Most of the police officers I have encountered around here have been perfectly nice. I believe that most police officers are good people who wouldn't do this. I am always happy to see stories and videos of good cops who truly care and help people.  The problem, in my opinion, is the Thin Blue Line. Yes, brotherhood, sticking up for one another, getting each other's backs... I believe in that. I think it's important for a police force to have that kind of camaraderie. However, when you start to lie out of loyalty, cover up criminal behavior, it taints the entire group. 

Just Say No To Getting Blown

Found this through Twitter. The video quality tells me it's recent, but other than that, I think it may have been recorded in the 1970s. I can't believe these kids aren't laughing him right out of the auditorium.  They don't say exactly where (or when) this was recorded, but I suspect these kids aren't there by choice.



The speaker totally confuses "getting blown" with a weed high. Reminiscent of an old Cheech & Chong routine.  Hilarious.

They Duggared themselves a big hole...

I had way too much to say about Duggar-gate to put into a tweet.

What's all this brouhaha over a show that I've never watched? Oh, I was aware of it. I'd seen clips on the internet. You'd have to live under a rock to not know who the Duggars are. But, watch it? Not my cup of tea. I'm not a fan of reality programming anyhow. I prefer real actors. Real writers. These shows serve the lowest common denominator and are cheap to produce. Gimme The Walking Dead. Gimme Scandal. Gimme N.C.I.S.  I'm not a high-brow PBS snob, not by a long shot, but I do have some standards.

Now, it seems, the word is out about what many of us have suspected all along. There was something twisted and kinky going on in that ginormous paid-for-by-the-network house/dormitory out in Arkansas. Something just plain WRONG. It turns out that oldest brother Josh molested his little sisters when he was a young teenager. Eeeewwwww. Some people say that you can tell by just looking at him, what a perv he is/was. I say you really can't tell by looking.  (What 14-year-old boy doesn't look kinda pervy?)  I do think it's rather telling that his wife, Anna, could easily pass for one of his sisters. Who knows? Maybe all those Quiverfull types look related. Maybe they are related. Again, eeeewwww. Not something I care to research any further.

ANNA IS IN AN AWKWARD POSITION.

The family claims to have told Anna all about Josh's past "mistakes" prior to their wedding. Undoubtedly, it was a very sugar-coated and sanitized version of events, much like they're trying to push on the public now. She went through with it anyways. Maybe the idea of being a big tee-vee star was too hard to resist. Since these things are decided by the patriarchs of the families, maybe her daddy said, "Yeah, so what?" and Anna didn't get a say in the matter. This cult does not give women much of a say in anything about their lives. It's all about the menfolk and what they want. Because bible.

After about a week of the internet erupting with Duggar-related news... TLC pulls all scheduled airings of the show 19 Kids And Counting from their schedule - no comment on the long-term future of the show. Josh resigns in shame from his position as a lobbyist for the anti-gay hate group Family Research Council amidst all the stories, though you'd think that this would be right up their alley and Tony Perkins would have offered him a promotion.

Twitter and Facebook went nuts, and there was no shortage of opinion pieces. The left indulged in some schadenfreude, poking fun at what they viewed as hypocrisy: 

Remember, one reason the Family Research Council fights anything gay is because they believe gay people are child molesters! Child molesters, I tells ya!  For her part, Mama Michelle voiced a robocall last year to citizens in Fayetteville, AR, where the Duggars don't happen to live. There was an anti-discrimination ordinance going before the city council that she was asking people to protest. Michelle feared that it would allow transgendered individuals into public restrooms where they could molest little girls. Molest. Little. Girls. Clutch the pearls!   So yeah. Hypocrisy.

Meanwhile the christian right circled their wagons, defending their heroes in many charmingly misspelled posts. Prayer warriors were out in force, spewing hatred at anyone who dared to criticize their precious Duggars.  I guess we're all gonna go to hell. Because Jesus. 

Right-wing politicians who had once proudly posed with Josh, are quietly backing away from him. One of the most vocal supporters, Mike Huckabee, took the Duggar endorsement down from his website, no doubt fearing it could hurt his presidential bid.  As if.

FOX "News" aired a two-part special in which the Duggars got to tell their side of the story. Megyn Kelly, in her defense, did a pretty good job of asking most all of the questions you or I might have asked. The Duggars response was to tap-dance around the questions, change the subject or lie outright. Really, what did we expect? If what I see on Twitter, Facebook and the rest of the internet is any indication, I don't think the Duggars accomplished what they'd hoped to with these interviews.  The public just ain't buying it. They couldn't even make themselves look good for a FOX "News" interview!  No links here. If you can't find this on your own you might have been homeschooled.

NOTICE MEGYN WEARS PANTS FOR THIS INTERVIEW. WHEN DOES SHE EVER WEAR PANTS ON CAMERA? WAS THIS A NOT-SO-SUBTLE DIG AT THE DUGGARS' FRUMPY SISTER WIFE CLOTHES? I THINK MAYBE MEGYN DOESN'T LIKE THE DUGGARS SO MUCH. SHE DID ASK THEM SOME HARD QUESTIONS! 

One thing they brought up was what I call the "Roofie Defense". "Most of it was while the girls were sleeping." said sister, and self-proclaimed victim Jessa Duggar Seewald. I suppose that makes it OK in their view?  That logic makes a roofie-wielding date rapist blameless, as long as his victim is unconscious. "Over the clothes" is apparently OK, too. Uh, no, it's not. Ask any woman or girl who's been groped while fully dressed. No, it's not.

JOSH ENDORSES ROHYPNOL(tm)

The family claims that this is a closed book now.  Everyone has forgiven everyone else. Jesus says it's all OK. Punishments have been meted out. There are "safeguards" in place now, to prevent any further "mistakes" from happening. Whether or not the victims received any counseling is rather murky. Most likely, they were sent to some christian counselor who placed the bulk of the blame on them since it's always the female's fault. You know, Eve and the apple.

TYPICAL 'CHRISTIAN' COUNSELING

Jim-Can't-Keep-His-Pecker-In-His-Pants-Bob, or whatever his name is, said that "people on the outside" think christians are perfect. Wrong, Jimbo. We may think you are misguided, wrong-headed, under-educated, delusional, judgemental, holier-than-thou... you get the idea... but we don't think you're perfect. That you refer to us non-christians as "people on the outside" speaks volumes. Me, I'm proud to be on the outside of the Duggars circled wagons.

The Duggars would like all of us outsiders to just go away and leave them alone. Sorry, there's no such thing as privacy after you let those reality-show cameras into your home. Of course, I'm sure they are hoping for the show to continue, in spite of all the bad press, because Money.  None of them wants to have to go out and find real jobs. Not with their homeschool GEDs and all this scandal baggage. Their religion forbids women to work outside the home.  This would teach them why women need to get educations and jobs. Just one normal paycheck doesn't cut it anymore. TLC pays yokels really well for just being yokels. I bet they want that back.

I think TLC is hoping that all the excitement will die down and they can slip their little moneymaker of a show back on the fall schedule. If they do, I hope they give Honey Boo Boo another shot, too. Those people never tried to pretend that they were anything different than  what they were. I might not be a fan, but I will give them that.

So ends my Duggar rant, for what it's worth. I used to just dismiss them as harmless kooks. If she wanted to birth 19 babies, well, that was just the other side of the reproductive freedom coin. Now that I've learned a little more about Quiverfull religious cult that they belong to, they just totally creep me out. I feel sorry for the kids, especially the girls. They don't stand a chance. It's been said that sunshine is the best disinfectant. There are many other Quiverfull families out there. Families that don't have the benefit of a nice fat TLC paycheck. Maybe all of this publicity will push the authorities to examine some of these families a little more closely. Maybe there is a chance for the kids to live a normal life.

I knew when I first saw Idiocracy that way too many people were headed in that direction.
I'm so sickened by the election results tonight.  How could this happen? How could it be this bad? The republicans weren't even trying to hide their anti-woman, anti-gay, anti-elderly, anti-poor people, anti-people of color, anti-child... basically, anyone who wasn't a white, rich, christian republican.

Do people pay that little attention to what's going on? I know, I'm a political junkie.  I gobble this shit up like fresh donuts, but c'mon! How do you not see that these monsters are out for themselves, and that any benefits promised aren't gonna be for you!

When I think of all the stuff that's going to be on the chopping block:

• Health insurance. I just GOT freakin' health insurance, and now they're gonna try to repeal the law that made it possible for me to get it.
• Social Security. The fuckers want to privatize it! It's not even their money. It's ours, dammit!
• Food Stamps. Because fuck the poor.
• Unemployment. Ditto
• Women's right to choose. Not just abortion, but they're going after birth control as well. Hobby Lobby was just the tip of the iceberg.
• Voting Rights. Again, fuck the poor.
• Collective Bargaining Rights. Because how dare those employees stand up to their owners employers. Asking for a living wage, benefits and all. Pshht.
• Minimum Wage. See Collective Bargaining Rights.
• Consumer Protections. Such a pain in the ass for the poor billionaires.
• Net Neutrality. How can free and equal access to the Net be good for the wealthy?

Yeah, that's it for not.  Imma go get drunk, while it's still allowed. </rant>

 I will be so happy to get this nasty surgical dressing off on Friday. It's not really painful any more, but typing's a bitch. Also, cooking, bathing, brushing my hair and just about any other grooming/bathroom chore you can imagine. I need to put a bag over it to cook, because ewwww.  I miss being able to wear pants with zippers, too.

Jason O'Mara as Det. Sam Tyler

 TV helps pass the time until I go back to work.  I just finished binge-watching the American version of Life on Mars, including all the bonus extras. Maybe the best part of owning the DVD. What a great show. If you've never heard of it, here's my nutshell version: A NYC detective from 2008, Sam Tyler (Jason O'Mara) is hit by a car and somehow wakes up in 1973. Same job, same NYC precinct. The 1973 Lieutenant is Gene Hunt (Harvey Keitel). He and fellow detectives Ray Carling (Michael Imperioli) and Chris Skelton (Jonathan Murphy) do things a little differently than Sam is used to. Annie Norris (Gretchen Mol) is a policewoman who takes a lot of shit from the detectives, and becomes Sam's friend.

The sets, music and wardrobes are all painstakingly 1973 anatomically correct. There's some good cop stories with enough of a sci-fi twist to please fans of either genre.  Lasted one whole season, a little better than another short-lived hybrid show, Firefly. What is it with these kinds of shows? Is it that it's hard to explain the concept of the show in  15 seconds? I remember trying to tell people about Firefly. When you said "space western" people stopped listening. "Time-traveling cop" doesn't fare any better, it would seem. I loved the show, and was sad to see it go. At least they got to wrap up the story and answer any questions a viewer might have had.

Harvey Keitel, as Lt. Gene Hunt

The Latest Palin Scandal

I really do feel some sympathy for poor Bristol Palin. She arrived on the national stage, pushed by momma Sarah as a poster girl for teenage pregnancy and "pro-life" values. Six years and several failed reality shows later, she finds herself a single mom who just can't get a break from that darned ol' librul media.

Here's the story, as I understand it:

• Bristol, along with her parents, her child and some siblings, arrive uninvited at a private party given at the home in Anchorage. The group shows up in a stretch Hummer limo, because what else would they be driving around in? 
• The child remains in the car, perhaps to serve as a designated driver, as the rest of his group has apparently been drinking. Hope they at least cracked the window and left him a bowl of water.
• Believe it or not, the homeowner was NOT thrilled to see these "celebrities" crashing his party. It would seem that even by local standards, the Palin clan is considered low-rent. No one was impressed by Bristol's "thong dress" whatever that is, and her $300 sunglasses. 
• A fight ensues. There's a lot of he-said she-said over who hit who. I'm sure somebody is sitting on some hysterical video, maybe looking for the highest bidder. You KNOW there were probably lots of people there, recording it all with their phones.
• The police show up.  There is audio of Miss Thong Dress blubbering her disjointed and profane take on the festivities. She seems somewhat more concerned about her missing shoes and $300 sunglasses than her 5 year old son, who she left in the car and has since lost track of. Astute listeners can hear her mother in the background, coaching her to quit swearing.
• Bristol takes to social media. Per Palin family policy, everyone else is to blame. Mostly the librul media, and for some reason, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton.

Again, this is Bristol Palin. She grew up in this family, and probably doesn't know any better. Maybe she doesn't realize that civilized people don't behave like that at parties. Maybe she doesn't realize that adults take responsibility for their own actions. Her role models weren't the best.

This could also be something pre-planned by her family.  There was so much going on in the news. ISIS, Ebola, the mid-term elections, school shootings. The Palins hadn't been in the news for a while, and they needed to do something to get the country talking about them again. Well, we talked. Now the Palin family is doing what they do best, playing the victim.

You have my pity, Palins, but not for the reasons you think you should.

Politicalgates has a much more complete timeline HERE  

Kirk Cameron Halloween mask

Here's a KIRK CAMERON Halloween mask. I might create more if I get the inspiration.

Kirk is getting all excited about turning Halloween into a "Christian" holiday. He is encouraging his followers to have the most fun (funner? more funnest?) Halloween party on the block. Because everyone will want to flock to the parties where they give out religious tracts. Here's the story on Politics USA. You can't make this stuff up. Well, I guess you could, but thanks to Kirk, we don't have to.