"Stand your ground" laws have got to go

Earlier this month, a jury in Florida determined that Michael Dunn, who fired 10 pistol rounds into an SUV containing four teenage boys, was guilty of attempted murder. Attempted murder, mind you. Even though Dunn shot and killed Jordan Davis, one of the boys inside the vehicle, the jury hung on the charge of murder.

The reason that the jury failed to convict on the primary count can be attributed to Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law, a synopsis of which, Judge Russell L. Healy provided in his instruction.

• The defendant “has no duty to retreat.”
• The defendant has “the right to stand his ground.”
• “The danger facing the defendant need not have been actual.” 

A careful interpretation of these instructions explains why, indeed, the jury reached the verdict it did.

After Dunn started shooting on that day in November, the driver of the SUV attempted to flee. But Dunn continued firing into the vehicle as it drove away. The jury held that this action was unjustifiable. On that basis, it convicted Dunn of attempted murder.

But before the driver attempted to drive away, Dunn had already fired several shots, killing Jordan Davis. The jury could not determine Dunn's guilt regarding the murder count, because Dunn claimed he saw a weapon in the vehicle at the time the incident occurred. Therefore, even though the danger he faced was not actual (the police investigation revealed that there was no weapon in the SUV), Dunn was within his rights to act to protect himself.

And so, the net result is that Dunn is convicted on 4 lesser counts, where he tried, but failed to kill anyone, but is not convicted on the 1 count that addressed the actual killing.

The lack of a conviction recalls another case in Florida from February of 2012: the case of George Zimmerman's shooting of Trayvon Martin. In that case, Zimmerman was found not guilty of murder, even though he forced a confrontation with the unarmed Martin, who was walking home from the store.

Both of these cases demonstrate the absurdity of Florida's "Stand your ground" law. The way the law is interpreted, a person can provoke a conflict, respond to any action with deadly force, and then claim that he felt endangered by the victim.

The uproar from these two cases is causing a re-examination of the law. Sadly, it comes at the price of two young lives.

Although Dunn will most likely spend the rest of his life in prison, it is important that law enforcement officials follow-up with a retrial on the murder charge. Florida must establish that shootings are not acceptable when the option to retreat is available.

Florida's "Stand your ground" law is an outgrowth of the fear and insecurity that is prevalent among certain elements of our society. To these people, the world is dangerous and they are losing their places within it. My own anecdotal observation is that, oftentimes, vociferous gun-rights advocates are frightened, insecure persons. To them, a gun affords respect. It gives them an illusory totem to which they can cling as proof of their relevance.

What an unhappy life that would be. And what a terrible price we continue to pay just to assuage the fears of such miserable, frightened creatures.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/02/22/3953095/fred-grimm-dunn-case-highlights.html#storylink=cpy

Domestic terrorism in Texas

Last Saturday, March 30, 2013, Texas District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, were murdered in their home by an unknown assailant. McLelland was allegedly shot as many as 20 times. (Read more here.)

Earlier this year, on January 31, McLelland's deputy prosecutor, Mark Hasse, was gunned down in a courthouse parking lot in broad daylight. (Read more here.)

There is also speculation that the murder of the head of Colorado's prison system, Tom Clements, may be related to the Texas murders, but no connections have yet been established.  (Read more here.)

By any definition, this is terrorism. 

As of this writing, speculation is that a white supremacist group, the Aryan Brotherhood (sometimes referred to as "ABT"), may be behind the killings. In October of last year, a multi-agency task force secured Grand Jury indictments against 34 members of the ABT. It is surmised that these killings may be retribution for the legal takedown.

White supremacists are a real problem in this country. They've tried to make inroads here in Oregon, but without much success.  (This ain't Texas, folks.)

But whoever are behind the murders, whether it is indeed the ABT or a Mexican drug cartel, they've picked a fight with the wrong people. Right-wing gun-nuts brandishing their phallus enhancers and proclaiming themselves to be the last line of defense against tyrannical government would do well to watch what happens.

A few weeks back, right-wing freak James Yeager, CEO of something called "Tactical Response," a company that trains civilians in weapons and tactical skills, proclaimed (on Youtube!) that if restrictions on gun ownership went "any further," he would "start killing people." Smart thinkin', James! The result of this foolishness was that Yeager's weapons permit was revoked by the state of Tennessee, depriving him of his means to make a living.

But Yeager got off easy. When law enforcement catches up to those responsible for the Texas killings, the best the murderers can hope for is to spend out their lives isolated in a maximum security prison.  And law enforcement will catch them. They don't let things like this slide.

Watch and see, gun nuts. You're about to get a sharp lesson. I wonder if you've got the wit to grasp it.

Another mass shooting

Scene from the Aurora, Colorado mass shooting.  Not the one that happened in July, but the latest one that occurred last weekend.

Five days into 2013 and we've had another mass shooting. Four dead, including the shooter.

This is the fifth mass shooting in the last month. 

• In Tulare County, California, on December 10, 2012, a gunman killed himself and 5 family members.
• The next day, December 11, 2012, Jacob Tyler Roberts opened fire in a shopping mall in Clackamas, killing 2 bystanders before turning his weapon on himself.
• Three days after that, on December 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, a gunman killed his mother, then drove to Sandy Hook Elementary School, where he killed 26 people, including 20 first-grade children, before killing himself.
• Ten days later, in Webster, New York, on Christmas Eve, a gunman set his house on fire, took position on a nearby berm, and ambushed and murdered two responding firefighters before killing himself.

This latest shooting occurred on January 5th, in Aurora, Colorado. Authorities haven't yet released all the details, but it involved a five-hour stand-off with police. The shooter, a so-far unidentified male, was holed up in a townhouse where he had killed three people. Police eventually shot and killed him.

This was the second mass shooting in Aurora in the last 6 months. Back in July another deranged killer opened fire in a movie theater, killing 12 and wounding 58.

Remember how, after 911, the entire nation was on the brink of hysteria at the thought of hidden terror cells within the United States? Well, Osama bin Laden is dead. Don't we all feel safe now?

How many mass shootings will we endure in these United States in 2013?  Five?  Ten?  Two dozen?

If we're not going to do anything about them (and, please, Mr. LaPierre, spare me the cockamamie bullsh*t about arming school teachers), can we at least lay off the mournful fakery?

Guns in America

There are an average of 11 gun deaths per day in the United States.  At least 6 mass shootings occurred in the United States in 2012.  Would anyone care to guess how many there will be in 2013?

In 2002, there were over 9,000 gun-involved homicides in the United States.  Compare that with the numbers of such homicides in Japan (47), Canada (144), or the United Kingdom (14) which all impose restrictions on gun ownership.

These numbers offer stark evidence of the need to address gun violence in the United States.  Listed are what I believe to be good common sense measures.  Some of these measures have already been taken.  In those cases, we need to do more to enforce them:

• Register all gun sales
• Prevent convicted felons from obtaining guns  
• Ban the sale of extended ammo clips, armor-penetrating bullets, and semi-automatic assault rifles
• Require that gun-owners obtain a firearms safety license (just as we require folks to pass a safety test to obtain a drivers license). 

I've been around guns much of my life.  At my dad's house on Klamath Lake, in Southern Oregon, we had a gun cabinet, right next to the refrigerator.  It was never locked; the cabinet didn't even have a lock.

Within were several shotguns (two 12-gauge and a 20-gauge), a couple .22 rifles, two 30.06 hunting rifles, a vintage .303 British rifle from World War II, and several small-caliber pistols, as well as pellet guns and bee-bee guns.  The closet also contained ammunition.

The Cariaga household was always full of kids.  The kids had access to the guns.  We used them to hunt geese and deer.  Sometimes we'd shoot them for fun, practicing our marksmanship on varmints or beer bottles.  We shot them from the deck just off the living room that overlooked Klamath Lake.  

I say all this to establish that I'm not afraid of guns.  I don't "blame" guns for the four mass shootings that have occurred in the United States in the last month.  I blame people.

So-called "Second Amendment proponents" claim that having guns in a household serves to protect that household from violent crime.  But, according to a study (which you can read here) by the New England Journal of Medicine, the opposite is true.  That study found that "keeping a gun in the home was strongly and independently associated with an increased risk of homicide... Virtually all of this risk involved homicide by a family member or intimate acquaintance."

Anecdotal evidence reinforces this finding.  The first victim of Adam Lanza, the Sandy Hook shooter, was his mother, Nancy Lanza.  Ms. Lanza was a gun enthusiast who took her son to target practice at the shooting range.  Acquaintances said she was proud of her gun collection and would boast of it at a local watering hole.  On December 14, 2012, her son used one of those guns to kill her. He shot her twice in the head as she slept.

But I can get a touch more personal with the anecdotes, if you prefer.

More than once, growing up, I saw guns brandished in highly volatile situations.  Passions ran high in the Cariaga household.  One dreadful night a weapon was discharged inside the house.  The bullet passed through the wall of the kitchen and into the basement.

Like I said, I'm not afraid of guns.  I'm afraid of people. People can't be trusted with guns.

Christmas shopping at Clackamas Town Center

Memorial Christmas Tree in Clackmas Town Center at the site of the recent mass shooting

Am I going mad?

Wayne LaPierre was on television on Sunday morning, pitching the NRA's idea, its  "meaningful contribution," to the nation's search for a solution to the mass shooting problem.  An armed guard at every school.  That's the solution proposed by a man who makes a near-seven-figure salary protecting the interests of gun manufacturers.  More guns.  (By the way, it appears there has been another mass shooting.  This morning, in New York.  Someone set a trap for firemen.)

Here's what he is doing.  He's creating a pseudo-debate, a distraction.  He does not want to talk about Sandy Hook.  Anything but Sandy Hook.  So he floats this idiotic idea to put an armed guard in every school.  (By the way, there was an armed guard at Columbine.)

He hopes to distract.  The Sandy Hook Massacre resurrected the national debate.  LaPierre wants to debate about his idea, not about the sale and manufacture of deadly weapons. He doesn't care if his "meaningful contribution" is never implemented. What matters is that his ridiculous solution is the subject of the debate.  (By the way, brass knuckles, which have the sole function of hurting human beings, are illegal.  Assault rifles with expanded ammunition clips, which have the sole function of killing human beings, are completely legal.)

Nice little thoughts

As it happens, Maty and I went to the scene of the horrible thing that happened right here at home. Clackamas Town Center.  This wasn't the most recent mass shooting.  It was the mass shooting before that.  The one from three days before.

Two days before Christmas and the mall was packed.   Cops, armed cops, were a visible presence.  I bought Maty a skirt and a jacket. 

At the Food Court, the very site of the horror, they'd erected a memorial Christmas Tree. On a fold-up table top, there were shiny red and white cardboard stars and Sharpie markers.  Write a message, a Christmas wish, on a star and they hang them on the Christmas tree or tape them to the glass of the safety rail that encircles the open floor.   Maty wrote "God Bless."  Other stars said "Forever in our hearts," or "You will be missed," or my favorite "Gone but not forgotten."

I wrote 5 words.  "What are we gonna do?"

Business as usual

Cardboard stars on the Christmas Tree and armed guards in every school, huh?  That's our answer?

Come on, people.

No meaning

Cold, rainy, Portland, days from the solstice.  This was the time of year when the pagans would hang evergreen boughs above their doors in defiance of the darkness.

Three thousand miles to the east, the sad memorials have begun.

Just like everyone, I want to know why.  Why do these things happen?  Why did this thing happen?

Andrew Solomon wrote a book, Far From the Tree, about parenting.  It is highly-acclaimed, but I have not read it.  He spoke to the Newtown massacre in an interview in Salon.

Dear reader, if you, too, are searching for answers, I encourage you to read the entire interview.  The story is titled "There's no meaning to be found in Sandy Hook," and you can read it here. 

At the end of the interview, Solomon says this:  "I think the capacity for this horror is out there. What one eventually has to come terms with is the fact that [the why of it is] unknowable."

My heart broke when I read that.  I knew it for truth the instant I did.

There is nothing to learn from this horror.  These things are.  They exist.  I'm sorry.

What are we gonna do?

At the office on Friday, someone said something at the coffee-maker, I think.  Or maybe I heard someone talking in the hall.   I had a dim awareness that something awful had happened in Connecticut.  But I didn't delve.  I didn't want to know anything. 

Friday lunch was sushi at a place a couple miles north on I5.  On the way back to the office, one of my coworkers, eyes intent on her smart phone, announced, "The President ordered flags to fly at half-mast."  Okay, I thought.  Whatever it is, it's bad. 

By the time I picked up Maty from work that night, I knew everything.  I saw the reports on television.  I saw the stories popping up on the internet.

She'd had a long day of caring for old, feeble people.  She jumped in the car when I pulled up.  She turned to me smiling, but her smile faded.  "Honey, what's wrong?"  

"I'm thinking about those kids," I said.  

She understood.  She'd heard already.  They cried about it at work.

The gall.  The unmitigated gall of it.  Not even three days since Clackamas.  How many does that make this year?  How many were there last year?  How many will there be next year? 

I wasn't going to write anything about it, but you know, that would be a kind of cowardice.  We all need to talk about this.  All the time.  What are we gonna do, people? 

To those who claim agency I ask, can you hear the devil's cackle?  And isn't this a fine world we've made? 

But if predestination's your bag --well then, River, sweep us swiftly on!  

Take us away from this dark place. 

Mass shootings in America: We're learning to live with it

Jacob Tyler Roberts, the 22 year old kid who went on a killing spree in Clackamas Town Center last night, worked at a gyro shop downtown.  He lived off 82nd Street, south of Flavel.  About five miles from my home.  According to people who knew him he didn't seem the type.  But he killed a hospice nurse and a father and he severely wounded a 15-year-old girl.  More evidence of a troubling truth:  anyone can snap.

Gun violence occurs daily in these United States, so it is difficult to categorize the various forms it takes.  Some things just don't make the national news.  Like the thing that went down in Tulare County two days ago.  But if we use a reasonably restrictive definition --say incidents in which a crazed killer opens fire at anonymous victims in a crowded community gathering place --there have been three such this year.  Besides this thing in Clackamas, there was the thing in Wisconsin back in August when that Nazi shot up a Sikh temple.  And there was that thing at the cinema in Colorado in July. 

As I said back then, random gun killings are a part of our American way of life.  So-called Second Amendment advocates have won the public debate.  In this country, there will be no restrictions on lethal weaponry.

So, unless and until we can find another solution, we're going to have to learn to live with occasional random mass murders.

But we seem to be getting better at it.

(I wish State Senator Ginny Burdick all the luck in the world with her efforts.  But I don't hold out much hope.)

It makes no difference what men think of war, said the judge. War endures. As well ask men what they think of stone. War was always here. Before man was, war waited for him. The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner. That is the way it was and will be....  War is the ultimate game because war is at last a forcing of the unity of existence. War is god. --Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy

Horror at Clackamas Town Center

My God!

Unfolding as I write.  Another crazed gunman goes on a killing spree.  Right now.  Seven miles from my home.  At least two dead. 

Eye witnesses report seeing a man in body armor, face hidden behind a hockey mask.  He reportedly carried an assault rifle and ran through Macy's at the Clackamas Town Center to the food court where he began firing indiscriminately.

Now, police say the suspect is "neutralized."  People are still hiding in the mall. 

God, I feel for those souls for whom this is a reality.  The people in the thousands of villages in Syria, Afghanistan, Sudan.   

Shit!  What am I saying?  This is our reality. 

This world we're living in. 

Another politically-motivated shooting

WASHINGTON (CBS/AP) - A Virginia man has been charged in federal court in the shooting of a security guard at the headquarters of a conservative Christian lobbying group.

Federal authorities say Floyd Lee Corkins II told a guard at the downtown Washington DC headquarters of the Family Research Council, "I don't like your politics" before shooting him in the arm. The guard and others helped subdue Corkins, who was taken into custody. He's been charged with assault with intent to kill and with bringing a firearm across state lines.

Read the whole story here.

In the last month, this country has experienced a bewildering orgy of random gun violence.  The thing in Aurora.  The thing in Wisconsin.  The thing at Texas A&M.

And now this.

Thankfully, the security guard at the scene showed acuity and courage and prevented the incident from becoming much worse.  

Corkins appears to have been motivated by politics.  The Family Research Council is a well-funded anti-gay organization (you can get a dose of its ugly rhetoric here) that has been identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group.  But hateful words do not justify violence.  Nor can the wounded security guard or the potential victims in the office building be blamed.  Except, of course, in the mind of a deranged lunatic.

This incident is another demonstration that, in today's society, there is nothing to be done about lunatics with guns going on killing sprees. 

As I asked in my open letter to Wayne LaPierre, Executive Vice-President of the National Rifle Association, since reasonable gun control laws are unacceptable, what is the solution?  Must we accept these incidents as an inherent part of our lives?  Are they part of the so-called "price of freedom?"

Mosque burning in Joplin: Time to crack down

Two acts of domestic terror in two days.

The day after a neo-nazi opened fire at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, a mosque in Joplin, Missouri burned to the ground under suspicious circumstances.

The Islamic Center, Joplin's only mosque, was described as "a complete loss" by Fire Chief Bill Dunn.  It was the second time in just over a month local firefighters were called to the scene.  On July 4, video surveillance equipment recorded an individual toss burning material onto the roof of the compound, but that fire had minimal damage.  You can read a full account of the incident here.

A Sikh temple in Wisconsin and a mosque in Missouri.  Natural targets for rednecks. 

This summer's crescendo of domestic violence makes one thing perfectly clear to me.  Rednecks excel at only one thing:  terrorizing vulnerable minorities.   But if you confront them, if you stick your finger in their redneck chests, they sputter and spit; they quail and quake; they cower.

So, it's time to stick some fingers in some chests.

Wade Michael Page, the shooter in Wisconsin, is dead.  But there's at least one redneck yokel in Joplin who is feeling the heat right now.

The FBI has dispatched 50 agents.  Large sums of money are being offered by that bureau and by the Council on American-Islamic Relations for information that leads to arrest and conviction.

When they catch you, Skeeter, it'll be hard time in federal prison.  And they will catch you.

This is why I pay taxes.

Right-wing terror strikes in Wisconsin

Grieving Sikh-Americans

One wonders at the frequency of these horrific events.  They jitter our national consciousness in flurries.  Blips on an EKG measuring the heartbeats of William Golding's Beast. 

Wade Michael Page, a 40-year-old ex-Army veteran and a white supremacist (he was in a racist band known as "End Apathy") opened fire at a Sikh temple in Racine, Wisconsin on Sunday, killing 6 and wounding 4.  Page was killed in an exchange of gunfire with responding police officers.

Wade Michael Page doin' his white power thing

As we have seen in the aftermath of two other similar incidents (the shooting in Tuscon last year and the recent shooting in Aurora), it is futile to hope that this incident will create any momentum toward sensible gun control laws.  And with guns and ammunition so readily available, there is not much that can be done about blown-fuse lunatics who go on killing rampages.

But that doesn't mean that nothing can be done.  This case is a bit different than the other two.  Unlike Jared Loughner, the shooter in Tuscon, and James Holmes, the shooter in Aurora, Page had a political agenda.  He was a white supremacist, after all. 

Once again, I'm reminded of that 2009 Department of Homeland Security report.  The one entitled  "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment."  When it was issued, right-wing blowhards from Fox News to Rush Limbaugh to Michelle Malkin, tore their beards and wailed, claiming the report was to be the Obama administration's justification for oppressing conservatives. What will they say about the report now?  (My guess?  Nothing.)

The FBI is treating the Racine incident as an act of "domestic terrorism,"  whatever that may mean.  But if it involves putting the thumb on right-wing paramilitary groups and hate-filled redneck zombies, I say "crack down and crack down hard."

Got no use for Nazis.

A letter to Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association

I sent the following letter to Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice-president of the National Rifle Association.  You can contact the organization from its website, which you can view here.

Dear Mr. LaPierre,

This nation needs a solution.  The tragic events that occurred at the movie cinema in Aurora, Colorado, on July 20, 2012, are but the latest in a series of horrific incidents that continue to plague this country at semi-regular intervals:  a deranged killer legally armed with a lethal arsenal opened fire on innocent people, killing many, maiming more.

The fact of the matter is that, in large part due to the National Rifle Association's influence in Washington, gun control legislation will never be enacted.  And yet, as I'm sure you agree, we must have a solution.  It is intolerable that these United States regularly endure this random bloodshed.

I'm writing to you in supplication.  You've won the political argument.  You've demonstrated your power. 

Now, please, sir, will you propose a solution that fits with the principles and beliefs of the National Rifle Association and at the same time protects citizens from random wanton violence from deranged killers? 

The ball is in your court, sir.  We desperately crave your guidance.

Sincerely,
Dade Cariaga

Another mass murder by a deranged lunatic

It's happened again.  Another incident of American terrorism.  This time in Aurora, Colorado.  The entire nation is once again expressing sorrow and shock.  The media are replete with eye-witness interviews, tearful remembrances from the bereaved, mournful remarks from politicians and officials.

Farce.  All of it.

With all due respect to the dead and their grieving families, the long faces and somber tones broadcast across the country turn my stomach.

Whatever the supposedly-revered Founding Fathers intended, the Second Amendment, the "right to bear arms," has come to mean that there must be no restrictions whatsoever on a person's ability to compile a lethal arsenal.  James Holmes carried out his dark comic book fantasy with legally-acquired and legally-possessed weapons.

If we're not as a nation willing to do something to curb access to high-powered weaponry, why should we continue to be shocked when this kind of incident occurs?  Does anyone doubt that there will be more such incidents?  How many have there been already?  There is no shortage of deranged lunatics in this world.  Take for example, Texas Republican Louis Gohmert, who said this of the incident:

"It does make me wonder, you know, with all those people in the theater, was there nobody that was carrying," said Gohmert

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/rep-louie-gohmert-texas-aurora-shooting-spurred-telling-god-article-1.1119282#ixzz21T3joRb2

People, this is the reality we've created.  Let's either change it or learn to live with it.

I guess I've been on the crazy train too long.

Christmas tree bomber case stinks like a frame-up

Winston Ross, of the Daily Beast, has written an article discussing the pre-trial maneuverings of prosecution and defense in the case of Mohamed Mohamud, the Christmas tree bomber.  You can read it here.

The whole thing stinks like a god-damn frame-up to me.  As Ross points out in his article, defense attorney Stephen Sady says that Mohamud was lured into his crime by federal investigators eager to teach the Rose City (my city, god-damn it!) a lesson about opting out of its Big Brother Joint Terrorism task force.  Sady says Mohamud, after initially making contact with someone whom he believed to be a terrorist operative (but who was, in fact, an FBI agent), lost interest in the scheme and had gone as far as to line up a fishing job in Alaska in the summer of 2010.  But then, the FBI, directed by a Justice Department positively salivating for a terrorism conviction, lured him back into the scheme.  They gave him $2700, set him up in his own apartment, and convinced him that he needed to help "the brothers."

Now that the discovery phase of the trial is underway, it turns out that many of the crucial recordings of the early conversations between undercover FBI agents and Mohamud do not exist.  Someone "forgot" to turn on the recording device.  Sets it up nicely for the prosecution, doesn't it?  I mean, who are jurors more likely to believe?  FBI agents or an embittered and confused Somali kid?

This case points up all that is wrong with this country in the wake of 911.  The Federal government brings to bear its resources to target and entrap a Muslim kid (because everyone knows Muslims are terrorists) and uses the case to get a free-thinking city to fall into line with the New Order.  Muslims are alienated,  Portland One-Worlders are chastened, and some hot-shot Federal prosecutor adds a gold star to his resumé.

Let's see what the trial reveals, but things don't look good for Mohamed Mohamud.  Or for any of us.

Right-wing terrorism hits Norway

Grieving Norwegians

 (Reuters) - Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik said he killed 93 people to spark a "revolution" against the multiculturalism he believed was sapping Europe's heritage, and experts say a frank debate about immigration may be the best way to prevent similar explosions of violence.

In some Nordic countries, and elsewhere in Europe, political parties have fed on rising public concern over immigration as economic conditions worsen and a drip-feed of Islamist attacks stokes fear and suspicion of new arrivals.

But experts argue overly aggressive political rhetoric and scare tactics have inflamed passions rather than address the many complex, underlying problems.

Alas for Norway.  Right-wing intolerance has struck that noble, peaceful nation and it makes me very sad.  I would be less sad, honestly, if this had happened in the United States.  In America, we've learned to live with this kind of insane violence.  Events like this happen here with semi-regular frequency.  And in the wake of each such event, right-wing politicians stir up nativist sentiments by identifying a scape goat (Muslims, Mexicans, and gays are recurring favorites) toward whom they can point to rally fanatical support.  This perpetuates the cycle and fosters the cultural zeitgeist that makes such events more likely.

But I've been to Norway.  I've seen that society, where all citizens have access to health care and higher education and where they live in a civilized manner.  Frankly, Norway is far ahead of the United States, socially.  It is sad to see such an enlightened and educated nation fall victim to the fear and race hatred that is so prevalent in this country.

In 1999, when I was in Stockholm, in next door Sweden, a group of neo-Nazis held a rally.  But word got out to the general public and a counter-demonstration was quickly organized, resulting in the neo-Nazis being vastly outnumbered and more or less shouted down at their own rally.  Quite a stark contrast to the rallies that occur all around this nation, where people tote guns and imagine that threatening violence against the government is patriotic.

The actions of Anders Behring Breivik evidence the fact that Scandinavia is not free of racism and xenophobia.  But, unlike here in America, such attitudes are not celebrated or tacitly put forward as legitimate.

Norway!  Turn away from the abyss!  Don't end up like us!

President Obama speaks to the Tucson tragedy

President Obama spoke last night at the University of Arizona at a memorial for the victims of the tragedy that unfolded in Tucson on Saturday.

I was deeply moved by his words, as I feel any honest person must have been.  The President said not a single thing to which any good-hearted American could object.

Was it not so?

I'd just like to point out some particulars in his remarks that I found personally inspiring.

...at a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized -- at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who think differently than we do -- it's important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds.

These words struck a deep, dissonant chord in my being.  I felt admonished by them.  As anyone who reads my political posts on this blog knows, I've regularly and frequently resorted to hurling indignities and insults at people with whom I disagree.  That ends today.

I will no longer use the term "tea-bagger" to describe people who hold political views different than mine. 

I believe we can be better. Those who died here, those who saved lives here --they help me believe. We may not be able to stop all evil in the world, but I know that how we treat one another is entirely up to us. I believe that for all our imperfections, we are full of decency and goodness, and that the forces that divide us are not as strong as those that unite us.

That's what I believe, in part because that's what a child like Christina Taylor Green believed. Imagine: here was a young girl who was just becoming aware of our democracy; just beginning to understand the obligations of citizenship; just starting to glimpse the fact that someday she too might play a part in shaping her nation's future. She had been elected to her student council; she saw public service as something exciting, something hopeful. She was off to meet her congresswoman, someone she was sure was good and important and might be a role model. She saw all this through the eyes of a child, undimmed by the cynicism or vitriol that we adults all too often just take for granted.

I want us to live up to her expectations. I want our democracy to be as good as she imagined it. All of us -- we should do everything we can to make sure this country lives up to our children's expectations.

Mr. President, I acknowledge the wisdom of your words.  I look forward to finding a way to work with all Americans.  We do need to pull together.

I'm ready.

La violencia en la frontera continúa

En la ciudad mexicana de Juárez, através de la frontera de El Paso, Tejas, la guerra entre tropas mexicanos y los maleantes de droges continúa tomar un peaje en los personas sufridos mexicanos.  El domingo pasado, un periodista joven, Luis Carlos Santiago, 21, fue asasinado por gánsters, incitando los redactores de su periódico, El Diario de Juárez, escribir un editorial que pregunta de los criminales "¿Qué quieren de nosotros?"

En esta editorial, ellos escriben:

Ante el nuevo asesinato, El Diario se preguntó el viernes 17, en un editorial casi tan rotundo como el de dos días después, “¿A quién pedir justicia?”. La dramática interrogación era formulada desde la puerta norte de “un país en el que las autoridades han demostrado su objetiva incompetencia”, y está probada la “anuencia por omisión de los poderes establecidos” ante los poderes fácticos. De allí que insistieran en preguntar: “¿A quién le reclamamos que no lo hayamos hecho ya?”.

Por eso, el domingo ese dolido periódico fue más allá. Resolvió dirigirse a las bandas de delincuentes que tomaron a Ciudad Juárez, a las que llamó “autoridades de facto”, y a las que inquirieron “qué esperan de nosotros como medio”, pues “ya no queremos más muertos, ya no queremos más heridos ni tampoco más intimidaciones”.

Se asusta para imaginarse que un periódico reconocería una organización criminal como el gobierno de facto tan abiertamente.

¿Pero qué es la alternativa?  La administración de Felipe Calderon, el presidente mexicano, es notoriamente corrompe y apenas mejor que una pandilla armada.  Y Tejas gobernador Confederado Rick Perry, antes que ayudar, procura rayar puntos políticos con retórica vacía.

En el libro del escritor norteamericano, Cormac MccCarthy, se llama "No Country for Old Men," él describe la situación en la frontera como una pesadilla de violencia y anarquía.  Ahora, vemos más evidencia.

El Diario pregunta una cuéstion matizó con desesperación.  Los ciudadanos de Juárez quieren saber, "¿Qué debemos hacer nosotros no ser asesinados?"  ¿Quién contestará? ¿Verdaderamente, quién puede contestar?

(Perdóneme por favor para mi español malo.)

Hutaree: Playing army in the woods?

Hillbilly hoedown

Last weekend, the FBI and the BATF raided several homes in Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio, arresting nine individuals associated with an organization called "Hutaree."  According to media reports and the group's web site, Hutaree is a Christian extremist organization, arming and training itself for an eventual war with "the Antichrist, evil Jews, and Muslims."

Federal authorities arrested nine individuals and charged them with  seditious conspiracy, attempted use of weapons of mass destruction, teaching the use of explosive materials, and possessing a firearm during a crime of violence. All felonies.  If convicted, sentences could extend well beyond the expected lifespan of even the youngest of the accused.  The defendants are David Brian Stone, 45, his wife, Tina Stone, 44, his son, Joshua Matthew Stone, 21, of Clayton, Michigan, and his other son, David Brian Stone, Jr., 19, of Adrian, Michigan, Joshua Clough, 28, of Blissfield, Michigan, Michael Meeks, 40 of Manchester, Michigan, Thomas Piatek, 46, of Whiting, Indiana, Kristopher Sickles, 27, of Sandusky, Ohio, and Jacob Ward, 33, of Huron, Ohio.

Hutaree had allegedly been planning to kill an unspecified law enforcement officer and then ambush the funeral procession for that officer in the hopes of killing more officers.  The group apparently views law enforcement officers as the "foot soldiers" for the "enemy."  According to the US Attorney's office, Hutaree hoped that the attack would spark a full scale war between Christians and the "enemy." 

When I saw the video produced by Hutaree, my initial response was to laugh.  Ignoring the fact that they were carrying some serious weaponry, I found it hard to take seriously a bunch of yahoos in fatigues running around in the woods.  They gave each other cool-sounding names like "Pale Horse" and "Captain Hutaree."  They had an elaborate ranking system.  Just like a bunch of boys playing army in the backyard.  But, then I hearkened back to the Homeland Security Report that drew so much criticism last year which warned against the threat of right-wing militia groups.

Enjoy your 15 minutes, y'all.

So, if the allegations in the indictments are true, that report seems to have been right on the money.  And, although this group seems to be laughably incompetent, it nonetheless adds to the list of incidents involving right-wing terrorists. 

I applaud the federal government's preemptive raid.

Although Hutaree and its ilk are fringe elements, I think they represent the cutting edge of the rage that is being expressed by tea-baggers and disaffected Republicans.  As Frank Rich pointed out in his column this week, and despite protestations to the contrary,  the conservative white minority in this country is vaguely aware that changes in demographics, religion, and social mores have stripped it of its dominant position in the political hierarchy of this country.  Irrevocably and forever.  I believe that as this recognition becomes more prevalent, those who identify themselves with the conservative white minority will succumb to their fears and drift toward these fringe elements.

This raid will at least give them pause.  And note that other "militias" in the Great Lakes area not only distanced themselves from Hutaree but are cooperating with the authorities.

The path back to power for conservatives will require that they build coalitions with other demographics, many of whom they detest. I predict that it will take them a while to gag down that bitter pill.  So, until then, enjoy watching them flounder.

What's a "terrorist" again?

Echelon Building 1, Austin, Texas

The incident last week which occurred in Austin, Texas, reveals once again, the hypocrisy and discomfort of the right-wing in this country around the term "terrorist."

At issue is the act of a frustrated software engineer, Joseph Stack, who intentionally flew his private Piper Cherokee PA-28 Dakota airplane into a building in Austin, Texas, where the Internal Revenue Service kept offices.  Besides Stack (who was killed in the crash), several people were injured, and Vernon Hunter, a Vietnam Veteran and an IRS employee died in the crash.  You can read about the incident here.

Immediately, upon discovery that the perpetrator was a disgruntled, white, conservative male who had posted an anti-government screed on a website, Fox News and other right-wing media outlets fell all over themselves trying to explain how this was a "lone criminal act" and not an act of "domestic terrorism."  Of course, their arguments along this vein are absurdly nuanced and meaningless.  More of the same from the people who could go on for hours about how Bill Clinton deserved to be impeached, or how the Iraq invasion was justified.  Sound and fury, signifying nothing.

But rather than deconstruct the various arguments that right-wingers put forth to justify not using the term "terrorism" to describe the incident, I think it is more illuminating to speculate on why they would do so.  

Right-wing politicians always find it useful to have enemies to which they can point and say, "Vote for me so I can protect you from them."  And so, it is in their interest to keep the "terrorist" designation as narrowly defined as possible.  Specifically, they want to apply the term strictly to Muslims from the Middle East or Africa.

Because, if the right-wing base of the Republican party hears the term "terrorist" applied to people like Joseph Stack or James Von Brunn, or Jim D. Adkisson, or Scott Roeder --well, they might get confused about who is the "enemy."   You see, although these men were all killers motivated by politics, they were not Muslims.  They were white, conservative men angry with the United States government.  And, as far as right-wingers are concerned, white, conservatives angry with the government are Good People ^TM.  Even patriotic.  Check what Joseph Stack's daughter, Samantha Bell, had to say about her father:  "I think too many people lay around and wait for things to happen. But if nobody comes out and speaks up on behalf of injustice, then nothing will ever be accomplished."

Joe Stack:  one man's patriot is another man's terrorist

Apparently "speak[ing] up on behalf of injustice" means flying an airplane into a building and killing people who are not in anyway responsible for one's misfortune.  That's not terrorism.  That's being patriotic.

Of course, sometimes, in moments of passion, conservative luminaries get a little cavalier, like when Richard Perle called Seymour Hersh a "terrorist."  Perle was upset because Hersh wrote an exposé about Perle's conflict of interest regarding the Iraq invasion and Perle's relationship with certain Saudi business interests.  Words spoken in anger.  No hard feelings, eh, Sy?

So, the right-wing continues its infinitely precarious dance around the the term "terrorist."   The good news for them is that their base might just be dumb enough to fall for it.