Turning Over Rocks

It's gotten a little beyond "disgusting people": here's how badly the discourse has degenerated.

First, via Joe.My.God., a perennial nutjob, "Pastor" Kevin Swanson, of some megachurch in the Southwest someplace:

Image: Right Wing Watch

On his radio program today, extremist anti-LGBTQ pastor Kevin Swanson and his co-host Bill Jack declared that “sexualized public schools that violate God’s law with high levels of flagrancy” should be burned to the ground.

Swanson and Jack were outraged by the fact that Washington state public schools teach students about gender identity issues, with Swanson at one point connecting this issue to a rape allegation against an employee at the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife.

“Rape is also against God’s law and I guess it must be against state law; I’m not getting why, though,” Swanson said. “Why in the world is a sexual crime against the law in the state of Washington if the other forms of crimes are not against the law in the state of Washington? See, this is confusing to me.”

I suspect most things having to do with objective reality are confusing to Swanson.

And here's the key:

Swanson and Jack agreed that if parents from the 1950s saw what was happening in the schools today, “they would want to burn them down.”

Excuse me, "Pastor" Swanson? You do realize it's not the 1950s any more?

Next, again via Joe, someone who's not nearly as important as he thinks he is:

Image vie Joe.My.God.

CNN fired conservative commentator Jeffrey Lord on Thursday after he tweeted a Nazi salute at a critic.

A network spokesperson confirmed that Lord was no longer with the network and said “Nazi salutes are indefensible.” The statement came hours after Lord tweeted the Nazi slogan “Sieg Heil!” at the head of a liberal advocacy group, Media Matters for America.

Lord said in a telephone interview Thursday night that he respected CNN and its journalists, but fundamentally disagreed with the network’s decision to fire him. He said his “Sieg Heil!” tweet was not an endorsement of Nazism or fascist tactics, but was meant to mock Media Matters and its use of boycotts of advertisers of conservative voices such as Sean Hannity, which Lord equated with fascism.

But, of course, outfits like One Million Moms and the American Family Association calling for boycotts is an entirely different thing.

And of course, his rights are being violated:

He called himself a “First Amendment fundamentalist” and called CNN’s decision disappointing. “From my perspective CNN caved on the First Amendment of all things. I disagree. I respectfully disagree.”

I really hate being the one to break the news, Mr. Lord, but the First Amendment does not guarantee your right to be a fascist asshole in a non-government setting.

And Joe comes through again: The NRA can always be counted on for something near-treasonous:

NRA TV, via Joe.My.God.

An NRA television host has apologized for suggesting that one of America’s enemies abroad could switch their sights from the Western Pacific to liberals in the U.S.

“Let's send a note to North Korea that Sacramento changed its name to Guam!” NRA TV personality Grant Stinchfield posted on Twitter Friday morning.

It was not immediately clear why Stinchfield suggested Northern California as a possible substitute for the destruction that Pyongyang has threatened against America’s territory east of the Philippines.

Not clear why he suggested (and I love that -- he didn't "suggest" anything) northern California? It's those San Francisco values, of course.

An these jokers have no self-awareness at all:

“It was meant as a joke and I regret it,” he said by phone.

. . .

Stinchfield previously used his show to blast liberal opponents’ focusing on President Trump in the North Korea situation, saying that “there is nothing funny about an attack on America.”

WTF?

I may come back to this -- I mean, that's how bad it's gotten: this is just the highlights (lowlights?) of reports from one site.