Politics

Wayne LaPierre, Asshole

“The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” said Wayne LaPierre, the N.R.A.’s vice president and most visible spokesperson. Gee, Wayne, thanks for the sound byte, but fuck you. There are many things that stop a bad guy with a gun. The bad guy might have a…
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Stop making sense!

Ah, the NRA.  The Gun Culture.  What a whole bunch of strange, strange motivations lead people to own guns.  But I won’t get into that here.  My intent in this essay is to follow an NRA argument to its logical conclusion, which will become, in effect, a reductio ad absurdam.  I will construct this argument in classic Socratic form….
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The truth.

Children get mowed down like clay pigeons just so adults with sexual inadequacy issues can play with guns and make themselves feel virile enough to face life.

Thanksgiving thoughts.

Well, my brother posted something on Facebook recently saying, roughly, “Don’t shop on Thanksgiving because you’re depriving those store workers of a day spent at home with their families.” My initial thought was, Wow, I completely agree with you, brother. But then, as I do so often, I thought again. First thing I did this morning was…
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Book recommendation

Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America by John M. Barry My rating: 5 of 5 stars Every now and then, I read a book that changes the way I perceive the world. One such book was The Power Broker, by Robert Caro. Before I read that, a highway…
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The Veterans’ Day Curmudgeon

I hope I’m not alone in saying this, but I think Veterans’ Day is a bunch of bullshit. Not just because we already have Memorial Day, which is like Veterans’ Day with nice weather. No; rather, because I don’t want to thank every person who wears or who wore a uniform.  If you fought in World War 2,…
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Why I’m against Rails to Trails.

Trains. Railroads. No other form of transportation has been so loved and so hated; so fondly remembered and so hotly discarded from memory. But Rails to Trails is not about memories nor transportation: it’s about the great modern god, ENTERTAINMENT. Whether taking the Adirondack Scenic Railroad or riding your bicycle from Saranac Lake to Tupper…
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Romney

Sorry, Mittens. Even though your excuses about when you stopped working at Bain make perfect sense if one consults a ten thousand page manual on corporate law, such delicacies are not readily understood by the people you count as supporters.  Nyah, nyah.