Tennessee state police form a perimeter to protect a white nationalist gathering from anti-racist protesters. Did I mention this was in a state park?

Police perimeter around the white supremacist conference #AmRen is intense. We heckling them like hell. pic.twitter.com/mMYd8vave9

— Lacy MacAuley (@lacymacauley) April 28, 2018

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

Police formed a tight perimeter around a Tennessee state-owned hotel Saturday, guarding a white nationalist conference inside the building from anti-racist protesters gathered outside. 

American Renaissance, a racist Virginia-based organization listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group, reserved the 125 rooms inside Montgomery Bell State Park Inn for the weekend conference. Attendees not staying at the hotel arrived there early Saturday morning. Nearly all of them were men. They wore suit and ties — mandatory dress for the event — and didn’t respond to reporters’ questions as police escorted them inside.

Anti-racist protesters arrived a short time later. State park rangers subjected each protester to a metal detector test before allowing them to enter a fenced-off area across from the hotel. 

One protester, Beth Foster, grew upset when park rangers wouldn’t allow her to bring a purse inside, as bags were prohibited in the protest zone. 

“This is absolutely absurd,” she told the officers. “Nazis” from out of state, she told them, were allowed to rent out an entire Tennessee taxpayer-owned hotel, and yet she wasn’t allowed to bring a tiny purse inside a section of her own state park. Eventually Foster — co-director of the Mercy Junction Justice and Peace Center in Chattanooga, Tennessee — left her purse and walked through the security checkpoint. 

“It’s anti-racist activists that the state sees as the enemies,” she told reporters. “Not the Nazis or the white supremacists who are in our buildings, using our public restrooms, and eating in our public restaurant, plotting genocide.” 

So to be clear the police perimeter was in place BEFORE any protesters even arrived?

So they just assumed they would be violent?

The protesters, many of whom I would assume were also residents of the state, were then not only forbidden to enter the hotel on state park land, but were corralled into a fenced off area like cattle.

And you know this is now a thing, with the Nazis and white supremacists demonstrating real fear about the protesters that show up at their rallies and gatherings, even though most of the violence, and the only death, is attributed to their side.

So much for being the "master race," right?

Four killed as semi-nude man shoots up Tennessee Waffle House with AR-15.

BREAKING: Travis Reinking, 29, of Morton, IL, is person of interest in Waffle House shooting. Vehicle the gunman arrived in is registered to him. Gunman last seen walking south on Murfreesboro Pike. He shed is coat and is nude. See Reinking? Pls call 615-862-8600 immediately. pic.twitter.com/duoWCo5fC0

— Metro Nashville PD (@MNPDNashville) April 22, 2018

Courtesy of CNN: 

Police are asking for the public's help in finding suspect 29-year-old Travis Reinking of Morton, Illinois. 

Authorities said the gunman arrived in a vehicle registered to Reinking, though he walked away from the restaurant naked.

The melee started around 3:23 a.m. (4:23 a.m. ET) in Antioch, southeast of Nashville. After sitting in the truck for a few minutes, the gunman came out wielding an "assault-type rifle" and fatally shot two people outside the Waffle House, police said.

"He then went inside the restaurant (and) continued firing," Aaron said.

The carnage stopped only because of the heroics of a customer who heard the gunshots and hid near the restaurant's bathrooms.

 Police said the customer monitored the gunman's moves from afar and jumped into action when he saw an opportunity. 

"He saw the gunman looking at his rifle. At that point, the shots had stopped. So he decided to rush the gunman, actually wrestled that assault rifle away, tossed it over the counter. At that point, the gunman then fled," Aaron said.

Wait, so this bad guy with a gun was stopped by a good guy WITHOUT a gun?

And this happened in the NRA's America?

Well that's going to confuse some people.

On a more serious note, this is yet ANOTHER mass shooting carried out with this country's favorite go to weapon for mass shootings.

And STILL nobody is doing anything definitive to stop all of this.

How many more Americans must die before it is finally enough?

If this were a disease we would be inundated with fundraising emails to stop it.

There would be telethons for fuck's sake!

But for this epidemic all we typically get are excuses from the Ammosexuals and politicians telling us it is still too early to talk about new gun laws.

The young man who guessed Sarah Palin's email password, and was jailed for it, has died.

The Palins leaving the courthouse in Knoxville, TN after lying to the jury.

Courtesy of the Daily Mail:  

The man who guessed the password on Sarah Palin's personal email account and posted details online when she was a nominee for vice president in 2008, died last week in California. 

David Kernell, 30, died of complications related to progressive multiple sclerosis (MS) late Friday or early Saturday, according to a statement his family released on Thursday.

His family shared that Kernell had been diagnosed with MS in 2014 and began participating in clinical research trials at the Cedars-Sinai Neurosciences Research Center in Los Angeles. He hoped to help develop cures and treatments for other victims of MS, the page-long statement detailed.

Despite what the Palins would have had you believe, Kernell was actually a very kind and giving individual.

'David did not let this incident define him,' the family said, according to Commercial Appeal. 

'He returned to UT Knoxville to complete his economics degree and further refined his programming skills by helping his local community. 

'He first volunteered his expertise to Tennessee Voices for Children, a child advocacy non-profit group. Later, he moved to California and worked to develop facial recognition software that could identify children at risk of abuse.' 

So he actually did something positive with his life, and DIDN'T just try to sell crappy diet products on the internet? 

I think everybody here knows the story of the then 20 year old easily guessing Palin's password and then anonymously bragging about it on the internet, which then led to Palin calling it "worse than Watergate" and taking Bristol to Tennessee to lie to the courts about being terrified even though at the time the Secret Service were patrolling their property in Wasilla.

This led to Kernell receiving a felony charge and spending 10 months of his short life behind bars, all for a college prank.

She tried to destroy this young man's life, as she has tried to destroy so many others before and after him.

And now he's dead.

81 year old man shows off the gun he carries in case of a church shooting, accidentally fires it wounding both him and his wife.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

About 20 elderly people sat down for an early Thanksgiving meal Thursday at a church in East Tennessee, unaware that the pleasant afternoon would take a grim turn. 

During their meal, they decided to discuss gun safety in light of recent mass shootings — an idea that came to them after a neighboring county’s sheriff’s department chose to hold similar seminars at its local churches, said Tellico Plains Police Chief Russ Parks. 

“Well, I’ve got my gun on me,” an 81-year-old member of First United Methodist Church in Tellico Plains said, according to Parks, whose department investigated the incident. He pulled out his holster, which held a .38-caliber Ruger handgun. He removed the magazine, cleared the chamber and showed the gun to the other parishioners. They talked about how to safely bring guns to church — and how sad it was that so many people nationwide had been killed in recent mass shootings. Earlier this month, a gunman killed 26 people when he opened fire with an assault-style gun during Sunday service at a small Baptist church in Sutherland Springs, Tex.

The 81-year-old man put the magazine back into the gun and put the gun back in the holster, Parks said. Later, while people were cleaning up, a church member who had missed the demonstration asked to see the weapon. 

Just as he was about to show it to the church member, the man accidentally pulled the trigger without realizing the gun was loaded. 

A bullet fired across the palm of the 81-year-old’s hand and toward his 80-year-old wife, who was sitting in a wheelchair next to him. It ripped through her lower left abdomen, out the right side of her abdomen, into her right forearm and out the backside of her forearm. The bullet then struck the wall and ricocheted, landing under the wife’s wheelchair, Parks said.

This of course is the kind of thing that I have predicted would happen if more people start carrying guns into churches, theaters, malls, and public schools.

But that does not make me any more intelligent than the guy who predicts that if you stand in the rain you are likely to get wet.

It is just common sense.

More guns, simply means more shootings.

People seem to think that guns work like crucifixes do in the movies to ward off vampires, in that simply wearing one keeps you safe from attack.

But that is not the case. If you have a gun on your person you are endangering everybody in your vicinity.

However, this being Tennessee, I doubt that is the lesson these people will learn from this.

I imagine that next you will see this man's wife strapped with a holster so that she can return fire if her husband "accidentally" shoots at her again.

Vastly outnumbered by protesters, white nationalists cancel second rally.

Courtesy of CNN: 

White nationalists groups that rallied Saturday in Shelbyville, Tennessee, were met by a large police presence and dozens of shouting counterprotesters. Hours later, a second rally planned in nearby Murfreesboro was canceled. 

The demonstrations, which organizers called the "White Lives Matter" rally, were planned by The League of the South, a Southern nationalist group, according to Brad Griffin, the organization's public relations chief. Other extreme-right and neo-Nazi groups joined them in the protests wearing black and bearing helmets and shields. 

The groups had planned to start at Shelbyville and then head to Murfreesboro about 20 miles to the north, but the Murfreesboro rally was canceled, Griffin said. 

About 800 to 1,000 counterprotesters had gathered in Murfreesboro to oppose the demonstrations, Rutherford County Sheriff Mike Fitzhugh and Murfreesboro Interim Police Chief Michael Bowen said in a joint statement. 

Griffin announced the rally was canceled on Twitter saying that Murfreesboro was a "lawsuit trap" and that holding an event there was not worth the risk.

Just goes to show that showing up to protest DOES work. 

These were expected to be the largest white nationalist rallies since Charlootesville, and they were shut down by people who are sick and tired of seeing racists taking over their streets.

That is definitely one for the good guys.

People have every right to exercise their freedom of speech, even racist POS, however they should expect to be met by others who are also exercising their rights to freedom of speech.

And if they cannot take that kind of heat, they need to stay the fuck home.

Another senseless shooting. This time at a church in Tennessee.

"He was just shooting." Witness recounts church shooting outside Nashville that left one dead and six injured. https://t.co/gRKfVGoHj3 pic.twitter.com/R975iWM1Xs

— ABC News (@ABC) September 24, 2017

Courtesy of Tennessean: 

One person was killed and eight others wounded Sunday after a man in a ski mask opened fire following a church service in Antioch. 

The shooter, identified as Emanuel Kidega Samson, a 25-year-old Rutherford County man, accidentally shot himself after he was confronted by an armed member of the congregation and is being treated at the hospital, according to Metro Nashville Police. 

Police say the gunman wore a neoprene ski mask when he shot and killed a woman in the parking lot of Burnette Chapel Church of Christ, as the service was ending shortly after 11 a.m. With his blue Nissan Xterra still running, the gunman then entered the rear sanctuary doors of the church and began "indiscriminately" shooting, police said. 

Among those shot were three men and three women, police spokesman Don Aaron said.

Apparently the gunman was confronted by an usher at the church and while pistol whipping the man he inadvertently shot himself in the chest.

He ultimately survived and is in police custody.

No reason has been given for the shooting.

Just another day in the NRA's America.

Kentucky Republican chairman exposes himself in department store bathroom.

Courtesy of Kentucky.com: 

A Kentucky Republican Party county chairman has resigned after he was arrested in Tennessee on charges of indecent exposure and resisting arrest in a department store, the GOP and police said. 

David Narramore, 54, of Whitesburg was arrested Saturday night in a Belk department store in Kingsport, Tenn., according to police there. 

A store employee told officers that he was in a bathroom stall next to Narramore when Narramore began rubbing his foot against the employee’s. Narramore then exposed himself to the employee, according to police. 

Narramore was escorted to an office, and when police officers arrived, he tried to “passively resist” arrest. After pulling away from and then moving toward officers, and then attempting to fight the officers, he was subdued with a stun gun, according to police. 

Narramore, a dentist, was taken to the Kingsport city jail.

Okay so here's my question.

Should we not have some law protecting ourselves from the possibility of being sexually harassed or assaulted by these Republicans?

I mean can't they get their own bathrooms or something.

Look, I am all in favor of treating everybody equally, but think of the children.

Should we really risk exposing them to these GOP perverts?

All I'm saying is there  should be a law. 

Donald Trump's former choice for Army Secretary has stated that the government helping people keeps them from seeking God.

Hey, don't look at me. If you want help pray for it.

Courtesy of the Washington Examiner:  

President Trump's now-former pick for Army secretary once said government-assisted healthcare is an "injustice" because it hampers church-affiliated providers from converting people to Christianity. 

Mark Green, a state senator in Tennessee, told a church group in 2015 that sickness is one of the main avenues that bring people to religion, but that citizens in the United States now instead rely on the government to help them, limiting the Christian church's role. 

The comments shed more light on the conservative religious views that led Green, a physician and former Army flight surgeon, to withdraw his nomination on Friday after Democratic lawmakers and progressive advocacy groups raised an outcry in advance of his Senate confirmation hearings. 

"The person who's in need … they look to the government for the answer, not God, and I think in that way government has done an injustice that's even bigger than just the creation of an entitlement welfare state," Green said. "In this setting, I'll share the story, I think it interrupts the opportunity for people to come to a saving knowledge of who God is."

Most of the time these Fundamentalists are not dumb enough to say something like this out loud, but yeah I think that a lot of the religious Republicans have this as one of the secret reasons that they do not want the government to provide people with affordable healthcare. 

Are you sick?

Sounds like you need a little faith healing from Dr. Jesus.

Actually if they miss the chance to indoctrinate you into a religious faith as a child, their only real opportunity after that is if you become sick, or poor, lose a loved one, or experience some other catastrophic event that leaves you feeling vulnerable.

Religion is essentially a parasite that feeds on the weak.

If you are well cared for and filled with the confidence that you have the help you need when you need it, then why would you resort to seeking solace from a primitive superstition?  

I have to tell you that this statement makes a whole lot of things start to fall in place concerning the Republican's disdain for big government, Planned Parenthood, and Obamacare. 

During town hall Tennessee teacher uses her Christian faith to explain why she opposes the repeal of Obamacare.

Seriously urge everyone to watch this entire question from a woman at GOP #Obamacare townhall in Tennessee: pic.twitter.com/8mBGE1z6Rj

— MJ Lee (@mj_lee) February 10, 2017

Courtesy of Slate:

“As a Christian, my whole philosophy in life is to pull up the unfortunate. So the individual mandate, that’s what it does. The healthy people pull up the sick,” Bohon said at the event at Middle Tennessee State University. Her concern? If Republicans repeal the ACA and offer coverage to people with chronic illnesses and pre-existing conditions coverage via so-called high-risk pools—as several GOP proposals would do—they’ll have less coverage. “We are effectively punishing our sickest people,” Bohon said, adding that Medicaid should be expanded so we can “make everybody have insurance.” These comments inspired much of the room to all but explode with applause. 

Black initially answered Bohon by arguing there are millions of people who still chose to not buy health insurance even as others were able to obtain coverage thanks to the ACA. “You don’t want to hurt one group of people to help another,” the Congresswoman said.

This didn’t come close to the heart and meaning of Bohon’s question, and the teacher spoke up again. “How many of those people were in states where they played a political game with people’s lives?” she asked, seemingly referring to the places, including Tennessee, that declined the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion. Black refused to answer, saying she would “pass.”

THAT is exactly what we need to see more of at these town halls. 

We don't need to scare them with threats of violence, we need to confront them with facts in a public arena where they cannot hide or deflect with double speak.

I love the fact that this educated woman was able to use their own religious talking points to shame them.

That was highly effective and I would like to see more Christians doing the same.

Sarah Palin believes news story about found Bible pages in the wake of a fire that killed three people and burned over a hundred structures show "the hand of God."

I do not blame you for not clicking the link which goes to that Young Conservatives website that Palin has been pimping lately.

However it borrows almost its entire post from a USA Today story which you can read by clicking here.

In the story a Dollywood employee sifts through the devastation left by that Tennessee fire and shares this story:

McCord, 24, sat on the bench where he found the paper, and called Carver over. Their work partners, Dollywood wardrobe manager Angela Davis and employee Kimberly Moore, had left to go to the restroom, McCord said. 

In silence, the pair pored over the page, the edges of which were burned black, rendering many words illegible. But parts of the right side of the page were preserved enough to get the message across: it perfectly reflected, McCord said, the tragic natural disaster that had thrust Gatlinburg and Sevier County into the national spotlight the night before. 

"O Lord, to thee will I cry: For the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field," the page reads, according to a picture of the page posted on McCord's Facebook.

"At first, we didn't know what part of the book it was from," McCord said on Tuesday night, "but we saw bits and pieces about fire and scorching the land, and how the beast groaned and roared for help." 

The page appears to be from the first chapter of Joel from the King James version of the Bible. 

"We were like this is unreal, this is unbelievable," McCord said. "When we had both fully read it, we looked at each other — and I will never forget this moment — we both burst into tears. I was ghost white, and we just prayed. There was nothing else to do.. Still to this moment, almost four hours after the fact, I don't have words for it.

I have words for it:

"Ridiculous"

"Pathetic"

 "Confirmation bias"

Apparently Palin believes that these pages represent the "hand of God" sending some kind of message to these volunteers, however in the beginning of this article it points out that the fire was responsible for "destroying more than 150 structures, killing at least three people and displacing thousands."

If there were actually a message to be gleaned from this it would surely be "I hate you all and I want to see you burn!"

NO wonder these people are the preferred targets for scammer and charlatans from all over the world.

14 year old Tennessee boy takes gun to school in order to kill students and teachers. School counselor talks hm down with no loss of life and no shots fired.

Molly Hudgens

Courtesy of WKRN: 

It happened Wednesday at Sycamore Middle School. According to Sheriff Mike Breedlove, the 14-year-old approached school counselor Molly Hudgens after first period.

During the course of the conversation, the teen said he was having some “issues.” Hudgens then asked him if he had a gun based off statements he had made. 

He responded yes, and said that he was going to kill some teachers and a police officer. The teen also indicated she would be the only person who could talk him out of it. 

Hudgens then spoke with the teen for 45 minutes, ultimately diffusing the situation. “She was able to diffuse the whole situation before we even knew what was going on,” Sheriff Breedlove said. 

“She did something that probably the most experienced law enforcement officer couldn’t do. It could have ended up tragically.”

Ms. Hudgens credited her training with giving her the tools to defuse the situation, which ended with the 14 year old taken into custody and charged with possession of a gun on school property and making threats.

But he is unharmed and not facing murder or attempted murder charges which could easily have been the outcome here.

Now just imagine if this were one of those school which had armed teachers walking the hallways.

Do we think that this young man would have been met with patience from a well trained professional who wanted to ensure the safety not just of the other students and faculty, but the boy himself, or would he have been met with a gun pointed at this chest by a poorly trained adult with his finger on the trigger?

This woman is a hero, and despite what we might hear from the conservatives our public schools are full of them.

The great George Takei takes on the anti-gay Tennessee Republicans as only he can.

"Takei pride" I love it!

George Takei really is a national treasure.

White nationalists are so excited about Donald Trump they are in danger of staining their nice white bed sheets.

Courtesy of TPM: 

Presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump has been accused of dog-whistling to white nationalists ever since he kicked off his campaign in the summer of 2015 and warned against “criminal” Mexican immigrants. His retweets of Twitter users with handles like "@WhiteGenocideTM" and his tepid disavowals of David Duke's support have not gone unnoticed in that fringe community, either. 

Tucked away in the woods of middle Tennessee’s Montgomery Bell State Park, 300 “white advocates” gathered over the weekend at the fourteenth American Renaissance conference to reflect on just how much fuel Trump has added to their movement this election cycle. 

"I've never felt this sense of energy in our movement," the conference host, Jared Taylor, said in his opening remarks. "I've never been more optimistic."

Apparently the conference which brought together such like minded folks as advocates for a white ethno-state, Holocaust deniers, eugenicists and confederate sympathizers, saw an increase of about a hundred people compared to 2015, many of them first time attendees.

Gee I cannot really imagine what could possibly have inspired so many folks to come out of the woodwork and openly express their racism.

It's almost like there was a national figure who was suddenly making it cool to be racist again.

Don't worry it will come to me.

Gun manufacturer Beretta moves company from Maryland to Tennessee, not to avoid taxes but in search of lax guns laws.

Courtesy of NPR: 

The company recently moved its factory to Nashville, Tenn., because it says the law in Maryland threatened its business. The opening day was celebrated with shooting demonstrations and a warm welcome from state officials. 

The Italian gun maker says it's being driven out of its longtime U.S. home on the outskirts of Washington, D.C. The political culture there has grown hostile to guns and to the people who make them, the company says. 

The view couldn't be more different in the city of Gallatin. 

"They do what the people who live here really appreciate and respect and enjoy," says Mayor Paige Brown. "And so it's been a real pride thing for us." 

The state of Tennessee spent more than $10 million to woo Beretta. Gallatin has also thrown in a $2 million property tax break and 100 acres for free. 

Gov. Bill Haslam says the plant has made him the envy of his Republican colleagues. 

"I literally had the governors of Texas and Georgia and North Carolina and South Carolina and I'm sure a few others walk up and go, 'Dang, Haslam, that's one we really wanted,' " he says.

Makes sense. If your company is making a deadly product that the citizens want protection from, then you simply move to a place where profit takes precedence over human life every time.

After all isn't coal mining still one of the main drivers of Tennessee's economy?

And I guess that shooting in Chattanooga last year that left four Marines dead was not enough to convince the state to adopt stronger gun laws.

I wonder how many mass shootings it would take to do that?

Perhaps this will be a trend which will find more and more gun manufacturers moving to the more hospitable political climate down South, where of course folks unabashedly cling to their guns and religion and eschew such Northern ideals as public safety and corporate responsibility.

Four children left in a car with a loaded gun in Tennessee. Guess what happens next.

Courtesy of Local 8 News:  

Officers say four children had been left in the car while their mother and step-father were inside the building a short distance away, paying a bill. The mother also left her purse with a loaded semi-automatic pistol inside. 

Police say the boy's 8-year-old brother tried to unload the weapon by removing the magazine when the gun discharged, "accidentally" fired, hitting the 7-year-old boy in the head. 

The boy was flown to UT Medical Center's trauma center for treatment, where he died.

Believe it or not the authorities are calling this an "accident."

In my opinion both of these adults should be thrown in jail and their children put into a place where they will be safe from this kind of stupidity.

Arkansas, Tennessee, and Alabama round out the top three for Black Friday brawls.

Courtesy of WRCB: 

Arkansas and Tennessee top the list for Black Friday fights. Arkansas tops the list at number one, followed by Tennessee and Alabama. Missouri ranks in at number 5. 

Shoppers love saving money, but when it comes to Black Friday, some Midsoutherners go to extreme measures to get those hot items. Experts said there is a way to save money while staying safe.

Yes there is a way to save money and stay safe, DON'T go shopping on Black Friday. (More brawls here.)

Wait until Cyber Monday, that way you still get great deals and you can shop in your pajamas from home.

Who wouldn't rather shop in their pajamas?

Oh wait, I forgot about the Wal-Mart shoppers.

Did anybody else happen to notice that the map up above closely matches this one?

Anybody else completely unsurprised?

Tennessee man rapes wife. Tells her, "I am your husband. I can't rape you." Police disagree with that statement.

Courtesy of WMC Action News: 

Police arrested a 27-year-old Memphis man after his wife said he attacked and raped her. 

Memphis police said the man drove his wife to the back of a church parking lot. There, he accused her of cheating on him. 

Officers said the man then held his wife down, choked, and raped her. 

 The woman said her husband told her, "I am your husband. I can't rape you. I can get it anytime I want." 

The woman called police and after an examination at the rape crisis center, officers arrested her husband and charged him with aggravated rape and assault.

Fucking asshole!

Of course he probably believes he cannot rape his wife because he is listening to people like that guy who posted on the Christian website that husbands "should not tolerate refusal," and other upstanding religious leaders who claim that once married a woman belongs to her man, and must obey him just as she would obey God.

This is, of course, the same kind of thinking that allows religious extremists all over the world to brutalize women and claim that it is their right by virtue of their faith.

It's not. 

In Tennessee 11 year old boy shoots and kills 8 year old girl over puppy. Gee, I wonder what mental illness he was suffering from?

Courtesy of WBIR:  

The Jefferson County sheriff said that an 11-year-old boy shot and killed an 8-year-old girl who lived next door. 

Authorities were called to Robin Road in White Pine around 7:30 p.m. Saturday on a report of a shooting. 

Deputies found the girl on the ground with a gunshot wound to the chest. She was taken to Morristown-Hamblen Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. 

Sheriff Bud McCoig said the young girl's next-door neighbor, a fifth grader at White Pine Elementary School, used his father's 12-gauge single-shot shotgun to shoot and kill the girl from inside his house. The victim was in second grade at the same school.

 According to neighbors the shooting was over a puppy.

The boy wanted to see the puppy, the girl told him no, and so he shot and killed her. Because that is how we settle disputes in America.

Unlike Michael Moore I am NOT going to stop bringing you these stories and talking about what we need to do about gun violence in this country.

If you are tired of hearing about them, take solace in the fact that I am as well.

However if you want to see fewer of them on this blog, and other places in the news media and on the internet, then you need to vote for politicians who will actually do something to help reduce the number of gun fatalities.

If you do that I will gladly stop posting so many stories about children being killed with guns.

Which should prove easy since there will be fewer of them to post.

In response to the recent shootings in Oregon the Lt. Governor of Tennessee believes that all Christians should be armed. You know, because Christians NEVER shoot people.

Courtesy of The Tennessean:  

Responding to a mass shooting at an Oregon community college that left 10 people dead, Tennessee Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey on Friday encouraged fellow Christians who are serious about their faith to consider getting a gun. 

Ramsey, R-Blountville, made those remarks in a Facebook post Friday, one day after a shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore., left 10 people dead. The suspect, 26-year-old Chris Harper Mercer, reportedly asked victims to name their religious affiliation during the massacre. 

In his Facebook post, Ramsey links to a New York Post article with the headline "Oregon gunman singled out Christians during rampage." Ramsey groups the Oregon shooting with other recent mass shootings in the nation. "Whether the perpetrators are motivated by aggressive secularism, jihadist extremism or racial supremacy, their targets remain the same: Christians and defenders of the West," Ramsey said. 

"While this is not the time for widespread panic, it is a time to prepare," he later adds. "I would encourage my fellow Christians who are serious about their faith to think about getting a handgun carry permit. I have always believed that it is better to have a gun and not need it than to need a gun and not have it. 

"Our enemies are armed. We must do likewise."

You know I wonder how ole Ron Ramsey would feel if Islamic clerics were to give similar instruction to Muslims in this country? After all they are targeted for violence far more often due to their religion than are Christians.

More guns. Why do these idiots always think that more bullets in the air equals fewer people killed?

Personally I don't think that anybody who sees the world in stark black and white, who believes that morality is a gift from the sky gods, and who thinks that the End of Times are just around the corner, should EVER, and I mean EVER, have access to any kind of gun, sharp object, or pointy stick.

I'm just saying.

Donald Trump's reception in Tennessee was not exactly welcoming.

Courtesy of the Tennessean: 

 Hundreds of rain-soaked demonstrators, some with children on their shoulders, marched down Fourth Avenue South Saturday to advocate for undocumented immigrants while Donald Trump used violent imagery to characterize them as dangerous during an event at Rocketown. 

While Trump addressed "anchor babies" and building a wall at the Mexican border, rally leaders beat on bucket drums while the crowd circled the building chanting, "Who are we? Tennessee" and "Racism has got to go." 

The rally was organized by a coalition of social justice groups led by the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition and Workers' Dignity. Stephanie Teatro, co-executive director of TIRRC, said about 400 people attended. While Teatro insisted the rally was aimed at combating the "ugly turn in the conversation about immigrants" for many of the presidential candidates, not just Trump, some of the demonstrators' signs specifically targeted him. 

"In God we trust," one sign read, "Trump is a disgust."

Yeah I know these protesters are not exactly the GOP base, but they DO vote and they DO have a political presence.

And besides 400 protesters is nothing to sneeze at in Tennessee as it really does not get much more Republican than there.

Just imagine the reception Trump might receive in a state which is colored not quite such a dark shade of red.