No one should be surprised that the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood is taking steps to institute Shari'a law in Egypt. At least he set up a sham vote to draft a constitution legalizing his iron grip over the country. The lack of freedom is something which Egyptians are all too familiar with.
What is unfamiliar is the source of the grip. Soon, Egypt will be crawling with sectarian militants. They will be the only ones free to practice whatever it is they choose to practice. The promise of Tahrir Square is broken and no one seems capable of repairing it.
Sunday, December 23, 2012
NRA: National Right-wing Amorers
The NRA's response to the most recent school shooting was even more nauseating, and less rational, than expected. As leader of the ultra-right agenda, they advocate for more weapons in schools (and ask Congress to appropriate funds for that purpose, knowing no such appropriation will ever be funded) but their followers would simultaneously remove evolution and subsidized healthy lunches.
In suggesting that each school hire its own armed security force, Wayne Lapierre forgets that Columbine had its own armed guard, Virginia Tech had its own armed police force, and Ft. Hood was a military base. Claiming that more guns make places safer is just as logical as taking a fire hose to a flooded basement and expecting the water to disappear.
To be sure, our culture as much, as our guns, is to blame for such senselessness. This website breaks down gun ownership and homicide by country. You can draw your own conclusions about the respective cultures. Violent video games and movies do not murders make, but perhaps our culture could revert to one where heroes value life, even that of their antagonists.
What is most likely is that those who have never stared down the barrel of a gun, or had a child who had to do so, will control the debate, the politics, and the money. Change must come, but it must come to those who can facilitate it first.
In suggesting that each school hire its own armed security force, Wayne Lapierre forgets that Columbine had its own armed guard, Virginia Tech had its own armed police force, and Ft. Hood was a military base. Claiming that more guns make places safer is just as logical as taking a fire hose to a flooded basement and expecting the water to disappear.
To be sure, our culture as much, as our guns, is to blame for such senselessness. This website breaks down gun ownership and homicide by country. You can draw your own conclusions about the respective cultures. Violent video games and movies do not murders make, but perhaps our culture could revert to one where heroes value life, even that of their antagonists.
What is most likely is that those who have never stared down the barrel of a gun, or had a child who had to do so, will control the debate, the politics, and the money. Change must come, but it must come to those who can facilitate it first.
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