Hide the hijab.

    America is quite a country. In the wake of the horrific shootings in San Bernardino, Americans are actually buying up more guns. If you own shares of stock belonging to gun manufacturers you are probably laughing your way to the bank.  

Meanwhile, a man the New York Daily News called a terrorist must be smiling at his handy work these days. The leader of the NRA, Wayne LaPierre, has managed to buy off just about every politician in Washington. 

Just imagine this for a minute: There was actually some sensible gun legislation that would have blocked terrorist (yes, I said terrorists), the mentally ill, and felons from buying guns, but the GOP said no. I know I know, I am shocked, too.

To them, any such legislation might weaken the "right to keep and bear arms", because any day now the evil government led by the Kenyan Muslim might kick our doors down and take all of grandpa's guns from the attic.

"To say it's okay for would-be terrorists to buy guns after what happened in Paris in California shows just a total disregard for public safety and a total fear of the NRA. and it's hard to believe the NRA could be so unreasonable. They're digging their own grave," 

No they are not Senator Schumer, they will be just fine.  Money can fix everything. Politicians need it to get reelected, and a clueless electorate----- after a few ads that distort the Second Amendment, will vote them right back in.

Speaking of the San Bernardino shootings, as a result of said shootings, Islamophobia is now running rampant. It started with the media, and it just took off from there. (The ignoramos leading the GOP pack actually made this asinine statement: "Take a look. I mean, you look at the names, you look at what’s happened. You tell me,” Trump said, adding he thinks “it was terrorism"  You can't make this stuff up folks. And that's not the only one. There are plenty more like that in the orange colored one's arsenal. Good for Chris Matthews for calling him out.   

The GOP is doing their best to politicize the entire sordid episode because god forbid they miss an opportunity to score political brownie points at the expense of  the dead. Their minions and thralls are actually calling on "moderate" Muslims to fix their Muslim problem. Imagine that. I don't recall us telling moderate Christians to fix their Christian problem when Christian mass murders were terrorizing us. Or, for that matter, telling suburban moms to fix their child problem when their kids were killing their classmates in record numbers. 

The thing is, this type of ignorance and Islamophobia is playing right into the hands of Isis. They want us to lash out at Muslims so that they can say to other Muslims: See, this is what they think of you. Being a moderate Muslim will not help you. They (the West) will be against you no matter what.

Thanks to the right wing and their fellow fanatics, the Isis plan seems to be working.

*Pic from theguardian.com/ tweeted by Everytown.





 

Land of the free and the home of the gun.

*"My dogs getting put down every day out there Mr. B. It's crazy."

That's what a client I visited in one of Philly's  prisons told me over the weekend.

He has every right to feel the way that he does. Sadly, the murder rate is rising in Philly and  everywhere else in the country. People don't even fight anymore. Got beef? Settle it with a gun. Today it's not the slickest dude with his fists who is the most feared; it's the craziest dude with a gun.

I read an editorial from the New York Daily News which I think sheds some light on the problem.

"States with the toughest gun laws suffer gun-related deaths at the lowest rates, says a study that destroys the myth-making of America’s Second Amendment absolutists.

The zealots say it all the time: The more freely guns are made available, the fewer people will die from bullet wounds. No one with any common sense has ever believed this nonsense; now there’s data to back up the gut.

Numbers crunched by National Journal document that gun rights advocates are dead wrong in claiming that easily arming law-abiding citizens would cut the murder rate — while also showing that the ready availability of guns makes them a factor in higher rates of suicide (which account for two-thirds of gun deaths), accidental deaths and other fatal non-criminal shootings.

Breaking down the grand total of gun-related deaths, National Journal showed that the states with the lowest number per capita — Hawaii (2.6 deaths per 100,000 people in 2013), Massachusetts (3.1), New York (4.2), Connecticut (4.4), Rhode Island (5.3) and New Jersey (5.7) — have among the nation’s most restrictive firearm purchasing and possession laws.

These include requiring (not in every state, but in most) a permit for gun purchases, universal background checks and regulations that make it awfully hard to get a permit to carry a concealed weapon — or carry a gun in the open.

Meanwhile, the six states with the highest number of gun deaths in the nation have dangerously permissive laws: Wyoming (16.7 deaths per 100,000 people in 2013), Arkansas (16.8), Alabama (17.6), Mississippi (17.8), Louisiana (19.3), Alaska (19.8).

In all these states, no permit is required to purchase a handgun. There are no universal background checks. Handguns don’t have to be registered. It’s pretty easy to get a concealed-carry or open-carry permit — if any permit is required at all.

As for gun murders, homicide rates for weak- and strong-gun-law states were roughly comparable, powerfully undermining the notion that a society in which everyone and his brother is free to own a gun is a society safer from the horror that firearms inflict on human flesh.

SUNY Cortland political science Prof. Robert Spitzer wrote in these pages Monday that obtaining a gun permit in New York required him to jump through hoops that Roanoke TV murderer Vester Flanagan would never have been able to, including providing his employment history and four character references attesting to psychological fitness and moral character.

The process even included an in-person interview with the local police precinct and could have triggered review by a county judge.

Smartly preventing people, including potentially unstable individuals, from obtaining weapons can make the country safer and save some of the 30,000 lives lost annually to gun violence." [Source]

There are others issues to be sure: A lack of jobs and job training programs for poor inner city kids; poor home training and a lack of  coping and social skills; and a war on drugs that is clearly not working.

Before leaving my client I tried to give him some words of encouragement. "Don't worry young buck, we will have you home soon."  That didn't seem to be what he wanted to hear. "Honestly Mr. B, I am not even in a rush to get back on these streets. I feel much safer in here."

*Pic from thegrio.com









 



 

People kill people, and guns make it easier for them.

"Do you feel safer with a gun in the house? When you bring a gun into your home, you dramatically increase the risk of someone you love being injured by that gun. Research has shown that with each 1,000 gunshot victims that come to our hospitals, less than two victims are actually using a gun for self-defense at the time.(5) The majority of gunshots are due to suicide, homicide (due to escalated arguments between loved ones), and accidental firings than to self defense. In fact, more guns are fired in the United States in the act of suicide than for any other reason.(6) To put simply: suicides, homicides (due to arguments), and accidental firings would be much less likely if the gun were not in the house in the first place."

~~Physicians For Social Responsibility-Los Angeles~~

I honestly think the pro gun folks in the ongoing gun debate in A-merry-ca watch too many movies. This moronic idea that if I have a gun in my home I will be able to protect my family from those evil intruders coming to get me, is a result of one "Death Wish" flick too many.

I mean honestly, how many of you on that side of the debate have ever had to shoot or shoot at an intruder coming into your home? Please tell me, and give me the particulars. And like my man Kat Williams says; "don't worry, I will wait"............yeah I didn't think so. Look, here in Killadelph we have home invasions all the time, and guess whose homes are getting invaded? Yep, you guessed it, other bad guys. Do you know why their homes are always getting invaded? Because they have guns,cash, and drugs in their homes, that's why. And you don't think those clowns doing the invading don't know that the person they are attacking owns a hammer? Do you think that's stopping them? If you do, I have a nice little antique bell with a slight crack in it to sell you.

Over at the very nice but misguided site, "Mirror On America, my man A.I. is basically calling me out on this gun debate by citing the case of poor Eve Carson. You remember her don't you folks? The cute blond coed who was brutally murdered by a bunch of animals recently in North Carolina. Yes that Eve. Oh, did I mention that she was a "star" student? I guess that made her life more valuable. Anyhoo, my man implies that if she had a gun she would be alive today, because she would have been able to go Charles Bronson or Jody Foster on her attackers. Not! The case file says that she was kidnapped from her home while studying. Now unless girlfriend used a handgun for a study aid I am not sure how having a gun in her apartment on that faithful day would have saved her.

But let me play along with this flawed logic a little: Let's just say for argument sake say that Eve did have a gun, and she did use it to fend off her attackers. Would that and other similar cases offset the hundreds of children who are killed in their homes every year because of accidental shootings? Or the crack pot who decides to take out his boss, his wife, or himself when he gets pissed off, because his gun is easier to get to than his fucking car keys? I don't think so.

But field what about the Second Amendment? What about it? Are you a fucking militia, or are you an individual? What fucking government do you think a 380 sitting in your dresser is going to protect you from? I mean honestly, how dumb is that shit? Citizens need their guns in case their government gets out of control. But field what about the folks who love to hunt? Fair point, (My father in law is one of them) and they can hunt Bambi until their hearts content as far as I am concerned. But do they need a M-4 Colt 6933 to do it? Do they really need a Bushmaster 450 or an AK 47 to hunt a fucking deer? Ask law enforcement officers how they feel about these Second Amendment wack jobs, and you will be surprised at their answers.

But let's keep having this debate. I welcome it, and I am glad I am on the right side. Those murdering leeches over at the NRA and the politicians that they buy off every year can kiss my black ass.

I have been to too many funerals, and seen too many lives destroyed to be apathetic about this subject.

So bring it on, I welcome it, and I hope your guns are loaded. Ah, that was meant to be a metaphor...

"Guns don't kill people"....

So now it's official, here in A-merry-ca we have a right to bear arms. Johnny get your gun, you never know when our government might turn against us, or god forbid, we might get outnumbered by those brown people.

In another close decision (5-4) the supremes basically told cities like D.C. and Philadelphia to get over their high murder rates and get their citizens in check. Guns don't kill people, people do. Yeah, but don't they need something to kill each other with? Sorry, I didn't exactly see where it said in the Second Amendment that we have a right to posses a firearm. I thought the Second Amendment was a limitation on the Federal government. Why not give states and local governments the right to regulate the possession of firearms in a way that they think is best for their communities? Hey I am with Justice Stevens on this one: "the supremes have basically enshrined the common law right of self defense", which is kind of scary.

Here in A-mery-ca we love our Second Amendment don't we? God apple pies and guns, that's the A-merry-can way. So what if every now and then one of us goes on a fucking rampage and decides to take out a bunch of our fellow citizens. Hey, we just have to do a better job at punishing these people, and making sure that they realize that if they use a fire arm to commit a despicable act, they are going to be punished. Oh, but wait, the latest crack pot, like so many before him, shot himself. Oh well, I guess he took care of that little punishment problem for us.

I keep hoping A-merry-cans will wake up, but sadly, I know we won't. I mean if someone can execute a schoolhouse full of little Amish children and it doesn't get a rise out of the sick fucks at the NRA, I don't know what will. I mean a bunch of niggers killing each other in the inner cities is fine. We all know those Negroes don't have anything better to do than take drugs and kill each other. But what about those good citizens [*wink wink*] in places like Kentucky and Virginia? Do they deserve to die? I don't know, call me crazy, but I bet if there were less guns there would be less killings.

Here in Killadelphia we are used to it. We have plenty guns on the streets . Our bangers and straw buyers love the NRA and their policies. Mo money mo money mo money. So a few hundred people die every year, what's a little murder among friends?

So congrats to you folks over at the NRA, I am sure you are feeling good about this latest victory. Let's just hope that if god forbid, one of you ever find yourselves staring down the barrel of a 380 in a shaking crack addict's hand, you will have a fast draw and good aim.

You will need both, or you will end up like the thousands of victims that you have forgotten.

"There was blood everywhere"

Those tragic words came from the lips of a Virginia Tech student, after a campus massacre in the rolling mountains of Western Virginia took the lives of thirty two of his fellow students. Hey, all I know about Virginia Tech is that Michael Vick played some serious football there, and it's in a beautiful part of the country. But today I also learned this: That Virginia Tech was the scene of the largest single day killing spree in American History. In one day, some animal managed to do- what is for us here in Philly, a months worth of killings.

This was horrible, and it seems like every time we think that these unspeakable acts can't get any worse, they do. From the former Marine who took out sixteen people from a tower on the University of Texas. To the depraved animal who bound and executed five little Amish girls in Lancaster Pennsylvania, because of his sick delusions. Somehow it just seems that these types of tragedies keep happening over and over again, and unfortunately, we can't figure out what is in the American psyche that causes it.

And before I write one more word, let me say this right now: I feel for those victims and their loved ones, and I would never minimize what they are experiencing, or what they had to go through today.

Now here comes my rant: We as Americans like to think that we are above harboring pure evil in our hearts. We like to think of ourselves as morally superior to other people in the world, because, this is, after all, America. It's hard for us to fathom one of our own committing these horrific acts against a fellow American. Yet time and time again, it happens, and these acts are not only committed by adults, but by children as well.

So what is it that's driving those of us in our society to commit these acts, and why does it keep- happening? Isn't it funny how conservatives spend all their time trying to scare us into being afraid of the Muslim bogeymen and terrorist who would bring harm to us, yet our own children have shown that they are capable of acts that are just as heinous and despicable? Maybe we should focus more of our war on terror right here at home.

I know that in the neighborhoods of our inner cities people live with terrorist every day. Try telling a retired grandmother who just cashed her social security check, that the ignorant ass young buck waiting to jack her isn't more dangerous than Osama bin Laden. I see where the President and members of congress came out and spoke about this tragedy today, and they tried to offer comfort and words of encouragement to an uneasy nation. "Schools should be places of sanctuary and safety and learning." Yeah I hear you Mr. President, but it sure would be nice to hear you make a statement to all the poor people in inner cities all over our country. People who have to listen to gun shots night after night, and who see the blood of their children in the streets when they wake in the morning. It's nice that you have offered federal aid to the people of Virginia to help them cope with this tragedy, but what the f**k? There have been over one hundred and twelve murders in my hometown alone this year, and I guarantee you there ain't no federal aid on the way. Again, I feel for those who lost loves ones today, but you know what, I feel for all the people who have lost loved ones here in my city so far this year as well.

Now you will hear all the NRA apologist say; (they come out of their holes every time there is a mass killing now) "Guns don't kill people, people kill people". Yes that may be right, but I guarantee you that it wouldn't be so easy for "people to kill people" if they didn't have such easy access to guns. Or how about this one: "Well if one of those students were packing heat they would have been able to stop the gunman before he could have killed more people." Yeah right, like a mother f****r wants to be packing his Glock along with his organic chemistry book in his book bag every fu****g day.

But hey, such is life in this John Wayne culture of ours in America. We have to be free to keep purchasing our guns and killing each other at will. You never know when an unjust government might want to infringe on our Second Amendment rights. Or God forbid, a liberal might get out of line.