Sandy Hook parents are suing Alex Jones for accusing them of being "crisis actors."

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

Alex Jones has spent years claiming the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School ― where a shooter killed 20 small children and six adults ― was faked. He has claimed the parents of these dead children are liars and “crisis actors.” 

Now, those parents are coming after him. 

In a pair of lawsuits filed late Monday, the parents of two children who died in the December 2012 shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, say Jones’ repeated lies and conspiratorial ravings have led to death threats. The suits join at least two other recent cases accusing the Infowars host of defamation.

Neil Heslin, the father of a 6-year-old boy killed in the shooting, and Leonard Pozner and Veronique De La Rosa, who lost their own little boy, filed the suits in Austin, Texas, where Jones’ conspiracy-minded media outlet is based. Each suit is seeking more than $1 million in damages from Jones, Infowars and a related company, Free Speech Systems LLC. Infowars reporter Owen Shroyer is also named in one of the suits. 

“Even after these folks had to experience this trauma, for the next five years they were tormented by Alex Jones with vicious lies about them,” Mark Bankston, the lawyer handling the cases for the parents, told HuffPost. “And these lies were meant to convince his audience that the Sandy Hook parents are frauds and have perpetrated a sinister lie on the American people.”

Jesus, it's about time.

For those who may be unaware of just how far Jones went in smearing the memory of these dead children, prepare to be horrified:

In 2013, Jones called the shooting “staged” and said, “It’s got inside job written all over it.” 

In March 2014, Jones said, “I’ve looked at it and undoubtedly there’s a cover-up, there’s actors, they’re manipulating, they’ve been caught lying, and they were pre-planning before it and rolled out with it.” 

In December 2014, Jones said on his radio program, “The whole thing is a giant hoax.” 

Jones continued: “The general public doesn’t know the school was actually closed the year before. They don’t know they’ve sealed it all, demolished the building. They don’t know that they had the kids going in circles in and out of the building as a photo-op. Blue screen, green screens, they got caught using.” 

Making it clear he didn’t view the occurrence of the shooting as an open question, Jones explicitly said that the Obama administration was behind the shooting, noting, “It took me about a year with Sandy Hook to come to grips with the fact that the whole thing was fake.” 

Clearly one of the most disgusting assholes on this planet. 

Jones is also being sued by a student from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School he incorrectly identified as the shooter.

Yeah, that also happened. 

Long island man pulls out knife during public meeting on school safety in order to intimidate teenager he was debating.

Courtesy of Raw Story:

A Long Island man terrified students and others by pulling out a knife to demonstrate why he believed schools should have armed security guards. 

The man took out the pocket knife during a face-to-face confrontation with a student Wednesday during a public meeting in Rocky Point on school safety, reported Newsday. 

“I’m considerably larger than you, OK?” the man tells the student in cell phone video recorded during the incident. “If something happened, if I decided to attack you, it would take the cops three to five minutes to come here — probably 10 if the traffic’s bad.” 

The man, whose name was not released, apparently disagreed with 17-year-old senior Jade Pinkenberg, who spoke up during the school board meeting to argue against arming teachers. 

“What are you going to do now?” the man says, as the teen backs away. 

Pinkenburg’s father and others shouted to tell the man to stop, and school security escorted the man out of the meeting. 

“I had no idea what was happening,” Pinkenburg said. “He was in my face a bit and I didn’t know what he was about to do. When I realized, I kind of jumped back. My legs got weak and my heart was beating fast.”

What is it with these adults thinking that violence, or the threat of violence, is the way to demonstrate to children that they are overreacting about violence?

Clearly this man believed that if he could scare this kid, that in some way he would make his point that the only way to feel secure in school is with armed guards at every  exit.

That is simply not the case, and in fact, as we have seen several times just recently, guns in school tend to go off accidentally and place MORE children's lives in danger, instead of protecting them from danger.

All this guy proved is that he's an asshole and a bad role model to his own children. 

Nevada father kills teen son for being gay.

Courtesy of Yahoo News:  

A Nevada father shot and killed his 14-year-old son because he couldn’t accept his son's sexual orientation, according to the son's former foster mom. 

On Thursday afternoon, 53-year-old Wendell Melton shot his son, Giovanni Melton, in the apartment where Giovanni lived alone. 

According to Sonja Jones, Giovanni’s former foster mom, Wendell caught Giovanni with his boyfriend before he pulled out a gun.According to the Henderson Police Department, Giovanni was initially transported to St. Rose Dominican Hospital—Siena Campus in critical condition. 

“As a result of their investigation, Henderson Police detectives determined that Melton discharged a firearm that fatally struck his son,” the police department said in a statement on Facebook. He was arrested at the scene on felony charges of open murder, child abuse, firearms possession and other various charges, and was booked into the Henderson Detention Center. 

"Giovanni was abused physically and mentally and spiritually for many, many years," Jones told News 3 Las Vegas.

Is it any wonder that so many gay teens are still so afraid to tell the world who they are?

It just breaks my heart that this pour kid never got a chance to learn that it gets better. 

Mother of young woman killed by bear asks for our help.

We have had an unprecedented number of bear attacks in Alaska this year, two of them fatal.

One of the fatal ones involved a young biologist named Erin K. Johnson who was killed by a black bear while collecting geological samples near the Pogo Mine at the time of the attack.

Erin's mother is a fan of IM, and she reached out to me last night asking if I would post a link to a memorial fund established in her daughter's name.

I said of course I would.

Just click here to visit the Erin K. Johnson Memorial Fund.

The money will go toward science education and youth outdoor activities, which seem like very worthy causes to me. 

I can only imagine this mother's immense grief at losing her daughter, and hope that at least with donations from kind strangers some good can be done in her child's name.

Thank you for reading this and for any support that you feel you can provide.

Thirteen year old films ICE while they arrest her father as he tries to take her to school.

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

Romulo Avelica-Gonzalez was dropping off his daughters at school in Los Angeles on Tuesday when he was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. His 13-year-old daughter, Fatima, sobbed as she recorded her father being handcuffed in front of her and her mother. 

Avelica-Gonzalez, 48, who has been living in the United States for over 20 years, had just finished dropping off his 12-year-old daughter in the Highland Park neighborhood when he was detained. His 19-year-old daughter, Jocelyn, who was at work during the incident, told the LAist that a car had been following her father since the moment he left the house. 

“My dad dropped off my first sister and then when he turned around, they turned on their light,” Jocelyn said. “My dad was really scared. He didn’t want to pull over, but he did. As soon as he did, one car went in front of his truck and one in back of his truck. They took him out and they arrested him.”

I can't even begin to imagine how terrifying this must have been for this young lady.

Yet this is the harsh reality undocumented immigrants are now forced to face.

This man, who has lived in this country for over twenty years, was doing nothing wrong and ICE used a DUI conviction nearly 10 years old and a two decade-old incident involving an incorrect registration sticker as a reason to arrest him in front of his daughter.

As it turned out Avelica-Gonzalez was granted a temporary stay but that does not mean he will not eventually be deported.

And remember this is now happening all over the country.

Welcome to Donald Trump's America.

Parents of two men killed in Benghazi attack file federal lawsuit against Hillary Clinton.

Courtesy of the Chicago Tribune:

The parents of two men killed in Benghazi, Libya nearly four years ago are suing former Secretary of State and current presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, saying the attack resulted from her “reckless” handling of classified information. 

The federal lawsuit, filed Monday, comes from Patricia Smith of San Diego, whose son Sean Smith was a U.S. State Department technology officer, and Charles Woods of Portland, Ore., whose son Tyrone Woods was CIA security contractor. 

Four people, including Smith and Woods, died after an anti-American militia group attacked the U.S. diplomatic compound on Sept. 11, 2012. 

Since then, Clinton and the question of what responsibility she may have had for those deaths prompted a two-year inquiry that revealed she had used a private email server for government business. 

A yearlong FBI investigation followed, which found no grounds on which to prosecute her.

You know every time I think I have witnessed the lowest depths to which the Republican party will go to defeat Hillary Clinton I rediscover that there really is no bottom.

Manipulating grieving parents into filing a baseless lawsuit for political gain is right up there with holding a gun to a puppy's head and demanding money.

Of course more than likely this will get tossed out of court due to a lack of evidence, because there is nothing in Hillary Clinton's handling of her e-mails that has anything to do with the attack in Benghazi.

This is just another GOP fishing expedition trying to dig up more dirt on Hillary, and using these grieving parents as bait.

Simply disgusting.

Texas woman fatally shoots her two adult daughters before she herself is killed by the police. Just another day in the NRA's America.

Christy Sheats, now deceased.

Courtesy of Chron:  

A Fort Bend County woman shot her two adult daughters Friday - killing one of them at the scene - before she was fatally shot by a responding police officer. 

On Saturday, the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office identified the mother as Christy Sheats, 42, and her daughters as Taylor Sheats, 22, and Madison Sheats, 17. 

Later, Fulshear police Facebook page reported one daughter was taken by Lifeflight to the Texas Medical Center and also died. It was unclear Saturday afternoon, which of the victims died at the scene and which was airlifted to the hospital. 

The incident happened about 5 p.m. along the 6000 block of Remson Hollow in an unincorporated section near Fulshear. 

When officers arrived to investigate a 911 call of "shots fired," they found two women lying on the street in front of a home in a comfortable, middle class subdivision. 

A Fulshear police officer shot and killed a third woman at the scene who was holding a pistol. Authorities said it was the mother of the two women on the ground.

Taylor and Madison Sheats, tragically gunned down by their own mother.

As of right now the police do not know the motive for the shooting though the mother did have mental health issues.

As you have probably guessed she was also an ardent defender of the 2nd Amendment.

Courtesy of Buzzfeed: 

“It would be horribly tragic if my ability to protect myself or my family were to be taken away,” she wrote in March, “but that’s exactly what Democrats are determined to do by banning semi-automatic handguns.”

Yes, it would have been such a tragedy if the Democrats would have taken her guns away from her.

After all how could she murder her family without them?

Do your kids know what to do when they find a gun? Watch this video and then ask that question again.

Part two.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

Toddlers have shot a total of 23 people this year, and the issue of accidental shootings involving small children getting hold of guns has been making headlines. 

So local Charlotte station Fox46 investigated the issue to see just what children would do when faced with the opportunity to pick up a gun. They enlisted the help of Mecklenburg County Sheriff Irwin Carmichael and some pint-sized volunteers using a harmless but authentic-looking BB gun. 

“So if you find a gun do you touch it? No. No, what should you do? Tell and adult…go tell an adult,” is the message Carmichael sends to children. 

But as it turns out, curiosity and the desire to play can override the instructions of adults when children don’t think they’re being watched. 

About a half-dozen parents, including Carolina Panthers player Thomas Davis and his wife Kelly, along with station employees. volunteered with their children to participate. The guns were placed in a conference room along with toys and games, and the parents watched their children via hidden cameras. 

Within 60 seconds, a little boy picked up the BB gun and dropped it. Within four minutes, the kids were pointing and firing the gun at each other. 

“It happens that easy,” a Davis said.

If you are anything like me your heart was in your throat the minute that first child picked up the gun.  And I don't think I took another breath until the end of that first video.

As somebody who has worked around children my entire life, and spent hours teaching them about being safe, that represents just about every nightmare I have ever had. 

And the incredibly sad part is that this is something that happens every single day in this country. Only in many cases the gun is not a toy and the child does not survive the encounter.

Finally somebody introduces a common sense gun law to protect children.

Courtesy of CBS St. Louis:  

Missouri adults who leave their guns in reach of children who end up shooting someone would face stiffer prosecution under a bill introduced by a St. Louis-area state lawmaker. 

Rep. Stacey Newman wants the law changed so that if a loaded gun is unsecured and readily available in the presence of a minor, the adult can be charged with endangering the welfare of a child. 

Last year, Missouri led the nation for child gun tragedies, with five toddlers who shot themselves or others. Nationwide, there have been 13 children “accidentally” shot so far this year.

Conventional wisdom was always that the parents of children who kill themselves with guns have been punished enough and that making laws which punish them further are punitive.

However as we have seen the numerous deaths of young children by unsecured guns in the home has done nothing to reduce the number of gun deaths in this country.

So I am 100% behind laws like this which punish the adults who place the lives of their children in danger through carelessness and negligence.

Hopefully if this law, and others like it, are passed it will finally get through to people that the guns they buy to keep their families safe, more often than not do the exact opposite.

Alaska mother charged with manslaughter in response to self inflicted shooting of three year old son.

Source

Courtesy of Alaska Dispatch: 

A woman has been charged with manslaughter in connection with the death of her 3-year-old son in a self-inflicted shooting at a South Anchorage home last summer. 

Court records show that Elizabeth Joelle Morin, 22, is charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in the death of Brayden Heath on Aug. 5. 

Medics responded to the home after Brayden shot himself with a gun he found there and pronounced him dead just before 12:30 p.m. Anchorage District Attorney Clint Campion said charging documents in the case were still pending as of Tuesday, but that both the manslaughter and homicide charges against Morin are based on alleged negligence.

I used to think that the parents of children who accidentally killed themselves with firearms had suffered enough and that jail was an unnecessary additional punishment.

That opinion changed about 100 innocent children's lives ago.

Michigan parent exercises his 2nd Amendment rights on school grounds. School exercises their right to panic.

Courtesy of the Battle Creek Enquirer:  

A hard lockdown was ordered Monday in Homer school buildings after a parent came to school with a holstered handgun, officials said. 

Homer Community School District Superintendent Robert Wright said the parent had brought a gun to school on Friday and was armed again when he returned to the school Monday to discuss Friday's incident. 

The parent of a student at Lillian Fletcher Elementary School, who Wright declined to identify, came to school Friday to sign in his son,. The man was carrying a gun in a holster. Wright said the parent was questioned by a staff member; the parent asserted "his right to have it there" and he left the school without a confrontation, Wright said.

After that incident the school notified the authorities and the police told the man that though it was his right to have the gun, that it was best not to bring it to school.

However the man was not convinced so the school set up a meeting with him, and guess how he showed up for that meeting:

"And lo and behold, he showed up with his weapon holstered ... it was never out of the holster," Wright said. "And at that point I had to inform him that our protocol is that we go into lockdown just for pure safety of all of our students and staff, and so we went into lockdown at that point." 

"They asked him to sit in the front lobby and they went into lockdown," Saxton said. "He left when he heard them go into lockdown." 

Wright said the district went under hard lockdown -- he described it as a time when instruction is halted to focus on safety precautions -- for about 10 minutes at 2:15 p.m. A sheriff's deputy was called to the school but the parent left before the deputy arrived.

So while this idiot was walking around trying to feel like a real man, he traumatized an entire school full of children.  Good job asshole.

You know what these Ammosexuals seem incapable of understanding is that them having a weapon does NOT make the rest of us feel safe. In fact just the opposite.

The reality is that when a gun shows up on school grounds, the possibility of a child being shot goes from 0 to 100% more likely.

That may not be the intention of the gun owner, but as we know guns can fall and discharge, they can be taken from their owners and used, or the owner may have something suddenly happen which angers them to the point of recklessness.

But the simple fact is, no gun, no gun deaths.

Period.

In attempt to convince them to confess their sins parents and church members beat two teenage boys. One of them to death.

Courtesy of HuffPo:

Two teenage brothers were brutally beaten in church - one of them fatally - in an effort by their parents, sister and other members of the congregation to force them to confess their sins and seek forgiveness, police said Wednesday. 

Police Chief Michael Inserra said investigators are still looking into what the supposed sins were. 

Lucas and Christopher Leonard, 19 and 17, were pounded with fists Sunday at the Word of Life Church when a "counseling session" meant to explore their spiritual state turned violent, Inserra said. They were beaten in the abdomen, genitals, back and thighs, authorities said. 

Lucas died and his brother was hospitalized in serious condition. Six church members - including the brothers' parents and sister - have been arrested.

What is that saying again?

Oh yeah:   

“With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.” ― Steven Weinberg

What besides religion, or superstition, could ever convince a parent to take the life of their child? 

Washington Supreme Court rules that charter schools are unconstitutional.

Courtesy of The Seattle Times:  

After nearly a year of deliberation, the state Supreme Court ruled 6-3 late Friday afternoon that charter schools are unconstitutional. 

The ruling — believed to be one of the first of its kind in the country — overturns the law voters narrowly approved in 2012 allowing publicly funded, but privately operated, schools.

In the ruling, Chief Justice Barbara Madsen wrote that charter schools aren’t “common schools” because they’re governed by appointed rather than elected boards. 

Therefore, “money that is dedicated to common schools is unconstitutionally diverted to charter schools,” Madsen wrote.

Education policy analyst and public school advocate Diane Ravitch had this to say about the ruling:  

This is a big win for parents and public schools.

I would agree and further state that I hope this is the first of many such decisions that put a stop to charter school programs that drain money and resources from the public schools while resisting any oversight from the same public whose tax money they are taking.

Listen I understand that there are some poorly run public schools in this country, and that parents really want alternatives.

But I also understand that there is a very determined anti-public education movement that uses charter schools and homeschooling as a way to undermine public schools, and their motives have far more to do with their religious faiths and ideology than they do with improving educational opportunities.

Make no mistake, public education and public school teachers are under constant fire in America and charter schools are the Trojan horse the opponents are using to get past our defenses.

(H/T Common Dreams)

Bleach enemas to cure Autism. The dangers inherent with ignorance of science.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

Parents seeking help with children with autism are turning to a “miracle” cure that involves giving the children enemas, using a dangerous industrial solution used for bleaching wood pulp. 

According to If You Only News, parents have turned to Miracle Mineral Solution (MMS), containing sodium chlorite which is mixed with citric acid (i.e. orange juice) to make chlorine dioxide. According to the promoters, the solution, which can be taken orally or administered via an enema, can cure HIV, malaria, hepatitis, autism, acne, and cancer. 

Miracle Mineral Solution is the brainchild of Jim Humble, who quit the Church of Scientology to form the Genesis II Church of Health & Healing in order to promote his “miracle” cure in Africa and Mexico. 

The Food and Drug Administration disagrees with Humble’s claims and has posted a warning on their website calling the product “dangerous” and “potentially life threatening,” advising “drinking the amount recommended on product labels can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and symptoms of severe dehydration.” 

Additionally, the Environmental Protection Agency warns that chronic exposure to small doses of chlorine dioxide could result in reproductive and neurodevelopmental damage, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued guidance in the use of chlorine dioxide in the workplace. 

Kerri Rivera, founder of the website CD Autism (“Autism: Avoidable. Treatable. Curable.”) which promotes MMS, claims that autism is caused by yeast, parasites, viruses, and vaccines that can be flushed from the body.

Courtesy If You Only News: 

Parents are using bleach enemas/drinks to try to cure their children of autism. They force the bleach solution into their own children orally or via enemas — both of which can cause serious health issues. Parents report their children fighting, screaming and writhing in pain. The monsters who sell the product online say it’s a miracle cure. The sane population calls it child abuse.

From one parent's Facebook page:

 This is quite literally one of the most horrific things I have every heard of, and it makes the actions of the Anti-Vaxxers pale by comparison.

In some cases these parents are giving their children several bleach enemas a day and are literally stripping the lining from their stomachs, which then shows up in their stool. A man named Andreas Kalcher has falsely identified these as "rope worms" and claims that these are among the "parasites" that this treatment flushes from their child's body.

However when tested the "worms" only contain human DNA.

I think we can all understand the desperation of parents searching frantically for something that will magically cure their children and make them behave and think normally, but what these people are doing to their children is nothing short of abusive.

If you read through the entire article at IYON you will likely come away shaken and extremely angry at the assholes who are preying on these poor parents and selling them this dangerously toxic "cure."

Sign seen in pediatrician's office.

This is becoming the new norm.

And this is not the only place that anti-vaxxers are unwelcome, they are also being asked to stay the hell away from the happiest place on earth:

It may be the happiest place on Earth, but California health officials are warning people to stay away from Disneyland unless they're vaccinated.

I myself am somebody who has avoided the flu vaccination for the last twelve years, relying on my own good health and strong natural resistance to see me through the season. And so far so good.

However as somebody who caught both measles and chicken pox as a kid I made sure my daughter got all of her shots and booster shots right on time. Because I love her.

As Americans we are famous for our independent spirit, but when our personal choices put others at terrible risk we have an obligation to put our stubbornness on hold for the good of everybody.

Simply put there is simply NO real scientifically proven connection between vaccinations and autism, despite what disgraced British doctor named Andrew Wakefield and Jenny McCarthy might have you believe.

We put chlorine in our pool water to fight bacteria, pasteurize our milk, and vaccinate our children. And we have never been healthier or safer.

And those are the facts.

President Obama makes perfectly reasonable statement about the problems working parents have in finding quality childcare, which gets cherry picked by conservatives as being an attack on stay-at-home moms. Well you know who HAS to weigh in on this!

"Too often parents have no choice but to put their kids in cheaper daycare, that maybe doesn't have the kinds of programming that makes a big difference in a child's development. And sometime there may just not be any slots, or the best programs may be too far away. And sometimes someone, usually mom, leaves the workplace to stay home with the kids, which then leaves her earning a lower wage for the rest of her life as a result. And that's not a choice want Americans to make."

Clearly the President was talking about the problems facing two income families who are faced with problems finding quality childcare. It was NOT directed at families where the male earns an income which allows his wife to be a stay-at-home mother. 

However THAT is exactly how it is being purposefully misinterpreted by the Right Wing professional outrage machine. And right now the conservatives smell blood in the water and the sharks are beginning to circle.

And if there is any hint of weakness on the President's part, you know who will soon come sniffing around for a taste.

And gee the headline of her Facebook post starts off so reasonably:

Obama Declares Stay-at-Home Moms Aren't Worth a Hill of Beans; Says It's a Choice 'We Don't Want Americans to Make’

I will spare you the entire thing as I think you can already imagine how ugly and fact free it will be. 

However here are a few moosenuggets for your perusal: 

On behalf of former and current stay-at-homers, including my girlfriends who still get together to bake cookies for the bake sale (see photos in my kitchen above), and volunteer to coach kids ball teams, and man the church's food bank, and entertain latchkey kids, and all that other obnoxiously "housewifey" stuff, the President needs to be spanked. 

Number one I think most of her "girlfriends" are on the SarahPAC payroll, and number two waht kind of person suggests that the President of the United States should be "spanked?"

It seems you'd shackle us by your snobbish shunning of one traditional lifestyle choice while taking advantage of power to manifest your liberal view by manipulating public opinion and resources to diminish moms who put career on hold to raise a family. You are really messed up. And you're so 1960's. 

Now she is talking about "shackles?"
 
You really are stuck in a contorted kind of '60s feminism where you obviously don't trust women to make their own decisions, so you're frustrated. 

And now she is suggesting that the President is "frustrated?" Anybody else picking up on a theme here?

Now, I'm sure your star struck female minions in the media will writhe and wiggle in defense of you on this, they always do, even though you just marginalized a most valuable sector of American society while having the gall to admit that, for you, it's only all about the money. 

"Female minions" will "writhe and wiggle?" Well so much more subtlety.

And then Palin goes for the jugular.

Perhaps you never witnessed the benefits a "full-time mom" provides a family, a community, our schools, our nation, but you're a big boy now so figure it out yourself without me lecturing you on the beauty of a homemaker. Suffice it to say "stay-at-home moms" make the world go 'round. 

- Sarah Palin

Okay now that was just uncalled for. Suggesting that the President does not appreciate stay-at-home mothers because his worked out of the home is a low blow even for Palin.

I understand that it undermines Sarah Palin, and the conservatives, sense of outrage to recognize that the President was NOT suggesting that he did not want mothers to stay at home with their children, but the fact is that what he was saying is that he did not want either parent to be forced out of work due to poor childcare choices.

The President was making his speech  at the Rhode Island College in Providence, and the topic was "Women and the Economy."  I think THAT audience had little difficulty understanding that the President was discussing ways in which the government could assist parents and help them to compete financially with their counterparts at work who do not have to worry about also meeting the needs of their children.

Sadly that is a sophisticated message which rings hollow in the ears of the ignorant.

More people are profiting from the spate of school shootings. Gotta love America.

Courtesy of Americans Against the Tea Party:  

From bulletproof blankets to devices designed to keep psychopaths with guns out of classrooms, the free market is offering solutions that Congress will not–which, unfortunately, do nothing to prevent bloodshed from happening in the first place. 

Now, a former police officer has teamed up with her daughter to invent the latest product designed to offset Congress’ inaction: the bulletproof backpack. Christina Thomas and her daughter Kelsey Thomas-Gregorio have proudly introduced AttachaPack, a line of backpacks for children that come with bulletproof inserts–and don’t worry parents: They’re customizable! 

“Our mission is to offer a range of innovative backpacks that can be personalized and enhanced in a way that excites kids and gives parents peace of mind,” they say on their web site. 

Available with a variety of options, the packs sell for up to $70 and are designed to “give parents peace of mind.” However, school security experts doubt their effectiveness. Ken Trump, a Cleveland-based school safety consultant, told NBC that “It may be well-intended but it’s not well thought-out.” He added, “I would ask this question: If you need a bulletproof backpack, wouldn’t the child also need a bulletproof front pack and a helmet and a Captain America shield?” 

“I have a vision of a classroom of kids running down a gym court playing basketball with their backpacks on,” Trump said.

Of course we have already responded to an earlier story about another company selling these completely useless backpacks, as well as the bulletproof mats, and calls to arm classroom teachers.

None of which will do a damn thing about the loss of life in the event of a school shooting.

And speaking of the loss of life, one has to question the compassion demonstrated by a company that decorates its supposedly life saving accessory with human skulls.

If people really want to protect our children they need to pass comprehensive gun legislation that will keep guns out of the hands of people who should NEVER have access to them.

Richard Martinez, father of the last UCSB shooting victim, asks "Have we learned nothing?"

Courtesy of TPM:  

"Have we learned nothing? These things are going to continue until somebody does something," Richard Martinez said in an interview with CNN. "So where the hell is the leadership? Where the hell are these people we elect to congress that we spend so much money on? These people are getting rich sitting in Congress, and what do they do? They don't take care of our kids. My kid died because nobody responded to what happened at Sandy Hook." 

Martinez's son, Christopher, was the last of six victims allegedly killed by Elliot Rodger before the suspected shooter took his own life. An emotional Martinez had railed against "craven, irresponsible politicians" and the National Rifle Association for their support of gun rights at a Saturday press conference. He redoubled his criticism of Congress in his interview with CNN, calling lawmakers a "rudderless bunch of idiots." 

A visibly angry Martinez expressed dismay that no legislative action has been taken since 20 elementary school students were killed by shooter Adam Lanza in Newtown. 

"Those parents lost little kids. I had 20 years with my son. That's all I'll ever have," he said. "But those people lost their children at 6 and 7 years old. How do you think they feel? And who's talking to them now, who's doing anything for them now? Who is standing up for those kids that died back then in an elementary school? Why wasn't something done? It's outrageous."

It is outrageous. It's outrageous that no mater how many people die from gun violence everyday in this country, that our politicians are too cowardly to stand up and fight against a lobby that is really not nearly as powerful as we are led to believe. 

And the most heartbreaking thing of all is that after we are finished lamenting this latest shooting, and after our memories start to fade, we will all go back to our lives as if it never happend until the NEXT terrible massacre occurs, and you know it will, which angers us enough to yet again speak out and demand that something be done to stop the violence.

But of course very little actually will change, and more grieving parents will soon join the Sandy Hook parents, and Mr. Martinez, in asking WHY.

Kindergarten show cancelled so that children can continue working toward college or a career. These are five year olds.

Letter sent to kindergarten parents

Courtesy of the Washington Post:  

An annual year-end kindergarten show has been canceled at a New York school because the kids have to keep working so they will be “college and career” ready. Really. 

That’s what it says in a letter (see above) sent to parents by Ellen Best-Laimit, the interim principal of Harley Avenue Primary School in Elwood, N.Y., and four kindergarten teachers. The play was to be staged over two days, May 14 and 15, according to the school’s calendar. 

One mother who received the letter, Ninette Gonzalez Solis, wrote on Facebook that parents learned recently the play was being canceled and started calling the principal, leading the school officials to send out the new missive. Solis wrote that she was very upset about the cancellation.

Gee no kidding, I would hope that ALL of the parents who received this letter are upset.

Here is a portion of the letter for those having trouble reading it:

"The reason for eliminating the kindergarten show is simple. We are responsible for preparing children for college and career with valuable lifelong skills and know that we can best do that by having them become strong readers, writer, coworkers, and problem solvers. Please do not fault us for making professional decisions that we know will never be able to please everyone. But know that we are making these decisions with the interests of all children in mind."

That is such BS.

Look I worked in a kindergarten room.

These children are struggling to learn to sit still during lessons, take turns during free time, and to zip up their coats and tie their own shoes.

The skills we focused on was teaching them to cut out shapes in order to improve their small motor skills, identify and read letters to improve their memorization skills, and to respect other children's property and feelings to improve their social skills.

One of the first tasks we struggle with is teaching children to stand in line. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get a bunch of five year olds to stand in line, without touching each other, wandering around aimlessly, or facing the wrong direction, for the first time?

A lot more challenging than one might imagine.

And what really helps with the teaching process is recognizing that this age group is barely out of the toddler stage, and they need to have lots of time to move, to play, and to distract themselves from the boring classroom work.

This school clearly does not understand what it takes to prepare children of this age for college or a career. One thing I can tell them for sure is that burning children out on school before they even reach the first grade is certainly NOT the way to put them on the path toward success.

Man walks around children's baseball game scaring children with his gun, and it's all completely legal.

Courtesy of WSBTV:  

Parents at a Forysth County park abruptly stopped a children's baseball game after growing suspicions of the behavior of a man carrying a gun in a waist holster Tuesday night. 

"He's just walking around [saying] 'See my gun? Look, I got a gun and there's nothing you can do about it.' He knew he was frightening people. He knew exactly what he was doing," said parent Karen Rabb. 

Rabb told Channel 2’s Tom Regan the parents grew so alarmed that they brought the game to a halt when the man declined a request that he leave a parking lot overlooking the baseball field. 

“He scared people to the point where we stopped the game, took the kids out of the dugout and behind the dugout, and kind of hunkered down,” Rabb said. 

Park users flooded 911 with 22 calls about the man. Forysth County deputies questioned the man, and found that he had a permit for the handgun. Authorities said since the man made no verbal threats or gestures, they could neither arrest him nor ask him to leave the park. 

Another parent questioned what point the man was trying to prove. 

"Why would anyone be walking around a public park, with a lot of children and parents and people here playing baseball, and he's walking around with a gun? I don't think the parents would have been nervous had he just had the gun in his holster and was just watching the game," said parent Paris Horton.

Why would anybody be walking around a crowded baseball field and frightening people by openly carrying a gun?

Because he can. And if the NRA gets their way, there will be a whole lot more of this kid of incident too.

Welcome to the America, where gun rights take precedent over a child's right to feel safe while playing baseball.