Sunday, October 27, 2013

The Powerful Pornography of the Gun Fetish.

Source
This is from an op-ed over at Truthout by William Rivers Pitt, that I thought was very spot on and worth sharing: 

Over the weekend, hundreds of gun-rights activists descended on the Alamo in Texas to lament how hard it is these days for gun-owners in America. The crowd was regaled by luminaries like Alex Jones, who dispensed his gibberish with the proud fervor of someone who has taken to heart the old adage, "There's a sucker born every minute," because he knows he's getting paid no matter what he says. "If it's a war they want," he roared again and again as the day wore on, "it's a war they'll get." 

Maybe I am desensitized at this point, but after another week of stories about dead children, I find myself most bothered by this thing at the Alamo, for it represents the distilled essence of the ongoing, blood-sodden catastrophe that is this nation's terminal fetish for guns in all forms. They really do think they are under siege, and see themselves standing post on the walls of their own fictional Alamo, facing down hordes of Obama-programmed FEMA soldiers who carry the banner of the UN and seek to take their guns before instituting Sharia Law across the land. 

Under siege? It would be funny if it wasn't so completely lethal. It is almost like a magic trick: a pack of dangerous, dim-witted blivets who drape themselves in camouflage and masturbate relentlessly to "Red Dawn" on a nightly basis sprawled on a pile of NRA leaflets while clutching an AR-15 in their other hand have figured out a way to become an untouchable class in American politics, even as the blood and brain matter of children swells past their ankles and up over their fatted calves. 

It is, perhaps, the most remarkable trick ever turned in modern American politics. A few bottles of Tylenol are poisoned in 1982 and kill seven people, and the country erupts, and Tylenol is scourged from every shelf in the land, and new safety measures are swiftly enacted. More than three hundred million guns kill tens of thousands of people on a yearly basis, however, with gun and ammunition sales going through the roof every time a mass slaughter happens, and the nation barely twitches. 

Somehow, these sad, sorry, pathetic, weak, soulless, gutless sacks of shame have not only insulated themselves and their deadly little hobby from the normal procedures of civilized society that take place when a mortal threat is exposed, but have giddily convinced themselves that they are, in fact, the real victims in all this. They can, and do, sell guns on Instagram and evade any and all background checks or other firearm laws, yet somehow they are being crushed under the bootheel of tyrannical governmental overreach.

There is more, and if you are interested I suggest that you click the link at the top to read it, however this part really spoke to me in that it lays out just how perverse this obsession with owning guns has become.

Now I personally don't really have an issue with a person owning one gun for protection and keeping it locked away in a safe location, or owning a rifle for hunting, and also keeping that safely locked away when not in use.

No my problem is with these assholes that own an arsenal of weapons, many of them designed for combat, who spend their days fantasizing about repelling an attack by the Iranians, North Koreans, or Obama led liberals, who they believe are about to tread on their sacred freedoms, seemingly unaware that most of those freedoms were taken from them by the previous administration right before their very eyes.

These people have traded away their actual manhood for a symbol of manliness, leaving them largely impotent in regards to dealing with aggression or personal safety unless they have a gun in their hand.

How else to explain the outpouring of support for George Zimmerman, who gunned down an unarmed teenager who was doing nothing wrong other than trying to get home in the rain?

I truly believe that if Zimmerman had beaten Trayvon Martin with a baseball bat, or a crowbar, and left him alive, that he would have been convicted. However the gun, an instrument solely designed to kill, has become such a symbol for freedom in this country, that it seems to defy justice. (Well unless you are a woman of course, then you get a twenty year sentence for firing a warning shot.)

Our entire perception of an appropriate response to potential violence has been skewed to the point that it almost seems that murder with a gun is more accepted these days rather than to injure to our attacker, or to fire a shot to dissuade them from continuing.

As I have shared before, I was trained in the martial arts by a very strict traditionalist.

And the guidelines that he taught me forty years ago, still resonate with me today.

It is better to walk away than to argue.
Better to argue than to injure.
Better to injure than to maim.
Better to maim than to kill.
And better to kill, than to allow innocents to suffer harm.

A simple lesson, but one that has never seemed more timely.

I just wish that these gun nuts had been exposed to similar instruction when they were young.


12 comments:

  1. Anonymous1:43 PM

    Love this:

    Ted Cruz and Sarah Palin,
    a marriage made in heaven,
    lipstick
    &
    dipstick:
    the ideal ticket for 1811.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous2:13 PM

    Correction: dipstick & lipstick. I don't believe Cruz wears lipstick.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous2:22 PM

    About 9 years ago, a student I had worked with in elementary school was in 10th grade. He was leaving the local YMCA after a basketball game and saw a girl he knew from school. Being the charming flirt that he was, he smiled and said hello. Her 18-year-old boyfriend took offense and tried to start a fight.

    My former student, however, was a firm believer in avoiding physical confrontation. As he walked away, the boyfriend pulled out a gun and shot him three times in the back, killing him.

    He was a wonderful young man, with so much potential. After struggling for years academically because of a significant hearing loss, he was finally making great strides in his schoolwork. His football coach felt, even in 10th grade, that he was a talented enough athlete to someday make it into the NFL, despite being hard of hearing.

    A life full of potential, cut way too short because some punk felt his ego had been threatened and used a gun to show what a big, tough man he was.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous2:30 PM

    O/T At another blog there is a report that Trig has been shipped off to Jim and Faye Palin's vacation home in Palm Springs. And Piper is living with Aunt Molly.



    What a hypocite. America's BEST mother. Not.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous3:19 PM

      TEELAND MIDDLE SCHOOL

      http://www.matsuk12.us/Page/22044

      Girls Basketball Rosters -- JV Roster
      Emily
      Colleen
      Abby
      Piper Palin
      McKinley Wooten
      Kalycia
      Diondra
      Kiley
      Coach Shea
      -----------------------
      Willow's hair salon job
      https://www.facebook.com/forgetmeknothair

      https://scontent-a-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/p480x480/1237167_216134075216426_1804803265_n.jpg
      -----------------------
      Bristol has been attending Penrose Academy in Scottsdale since October 10th.

      http://instagram.com/p/fTrTTloe0L/ (back row?)
      -----------------------
      Jim & Faye Palin
      http://www.freenewspos.com/news/article/b/46576/today/palm-desert-country-club-residents-called-on-to-pay

      Palm Desert Country Club, Palm Desert, CA
      Located in the heart of the Coachella Valley, a two-hour drive east of Los Angeles, CA.

      "We’re extremely appreciative for what this group of people have done to get the golf course back into shape,” said Faye Palin, a seasonal resident of the country club for 13 years.
      “To me it's an investment,” Jim Palin said, as a crowd of residents cheered and clapped."


      Delete
    2. Anonymous3:54 PM

      This is where the "fake family" is currently rumored to be living:

      Track in Wasilla at the Palin complex
      Bristol in Scottsdale with Sarah
      Willow staying at Bristol's renovated Wasilla home
      Piper living with Aunt Molly in Wasilla
      Trig possibly in CA with Jim & Faye Palin

      Sarah in Scottsdale for the winter
      Todd is in AZ or AK depending if Sarah needs an escort or he's getting ready for the 2014 Iron Dog

      Delete
    3. Anonymous5:08 PM

      So that 1st day of School photo op of Tri-g and Todd was Bullshit? Sarah Palin has more secrets than the NSA with all of their SEALED RECORDS.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous8:05 PM

      I stumbled upon this on Pinterest. Seems to me to be someone scorned. At the very least it has some interesting items/pictures I've never seen before.

      http://www.pinterest.com/atticatalley/

      http://www.pinterest.com/search/?q=RAINBOWBAYRESORT

      http://www.pinterest.com/atticatalley/todd-palins-shirt/

      http://www.pinterest.com/atticatalley/sarah-palin-wasilla-alaska/

      Delete
  5. Anonymous3:27 PM

    Great post Gryph.

    -SJP

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous5:06 PM

    Todd Palin would use a 1 shot derringer.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anita Winecooler5:39 PM

    The analogy between gun fetishists and pornography is so appropriate. And these vile idiots feel they're being persecuted? For what?
    The tenets of your martial arts training is exactly the same as my kids were taught in theirs. I highly recommend tai kwan do for kids. It teaches them self discipline, self control, self esteem and self empowerment among so many other valuable life lesson's. Self defense is such a small part of the package.
    We chose it over Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts and it was the best money we spent.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous7:04 PM

    Thanks for continuing to comment on this issue, Gryphen. But that hairy, droopy pistol is going to give me nightmares!

    ReplyDelete

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It just goes directly to their thighs.