I know I haven't really commented all that much about the Dallas shooting: after wading through all the conflicting accounts, updates, second guesses, etc,. etc., etc. (which I'm sure you've been following anyway), my head was swimming. (Well, there was also trying to sort out the prokaryotes for the Saturday Science post, which you'll notice has been delayed -- until I figure out the relationships and hypothetical histories of the Archaea and Bacteria.)
At any rate, I think this sums up my reaction:
Update: I think it's time to highlight something the president said about the whole gun issue, via Digby:
Another case of the tail wagging the dog. The gun freaks and other right-wingers are, of course, blaming everyone but guns, from Ben Carson (remember him?) accusing the president of "politicizing" the issue (and of course, thanks to that asshole Wayne LaPierre and his gun manufacturers' lobby, it is a political issue -- even most gun owners favor restrictions on gun ownership) to Fox News blaming the president for "hating cops" and Black Lives Matter for engaging in a peaceful demonstration -- well, you get the picture. (At this point, I'm ambivalent about BLM, mostly because of the hold-up they pulled at Toronto Pride, but that was a local chapter and in the case of Dallas, BLM is blameless.)
So, in less than a month we have two major mass shootings, but it's not because guns are readily available to any crazy person with a grudge against someone, whether real or imagined. Couldn't possibly be that.
This seems like an appropriate coda:
At any rate, I think this sums up my reaction:
Update: I think it's time to highlight something the president said about the whole gun issue, via Digby:
And so we have to talk about [guns]. And as I've said before there is a way to talk about it that is consistent with our constitution and the 2nd Amendment. The problem is that even mention of it somehow evokes this kind of polarization. And you're right when it comes to this issue of gun safety there is polarization between a very intense minority and a majority of Americans who think we could be doing better when it comes to gun safety.(Emphasis added.)
Another case of the tail wagging the dog. The gun freaks and other right-wingers are, of course, blaming everyone but guns, from Ben Carson (remember him?) accusing the president of "politicizing" the issue (and of course, thanks to that asshole Wayne LaPierre and his gun manufacturers' lobby, it is a political issue -- even most gun owners favor restrictions on gun ownership) to Fox News blaming the president for "hating cops" and Black Lives Matter for engaging in a peaceful demonstration -- well, you get the picture. (At this point, I'm ambivalent about BLM, mostly because of the hold-up they pulled at Toronto Pride, but that was a local chapter and in the case of Dallas, BLM is blameless.)
So, in less than a month we have two major mass shootings, but it's not because guns are readily available to any crazy person with a grudge against someone, whether real or imagined. Couldn't possibly be that.
This seems like an appropriate coda:
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