Republicans Suck at Security. Proof? Timothy McVeigh.

20 years ago this Sunday, a white “Christian” Militia goon named Timothy McVeigh committed the worst act of domestic terrorism in American history. He blew up a building full of children and non-combatant men and women, killing 168 of them and wounding hundreds more. But do we run around yelling “4/19” like we do “9/11”? Of course not.

We don’t because, unlike Dubya, Bill Clinton didn’t use the Oklahoma City Tragedy for nefarious political purposes. Bubba didn’t declare a “Global War on Militias”; he didn’t invade Idaho to wipe out militia types; he didn’t torture or throw McVeigh into a Cuban prison; no, President Clinton used normal military and civilian means to bring the scumbag terrorist and his accomplices to justice. And he was successful, because Timmy Mac is long dead, having been tried in civilian courts, convicted, and finally executed in accordance with Federal and State civilian law.

By contrast, the Bushistas used 9/11 to manipulate us, rob us, deprive us of our rights, and kill a lot of us. Bin Laden’s trained sociopathic pilots may have terrorized us, but not half as much as Shrub, Cheney and their cabal did. From the DHS/TSA and their terror alert levels, to the Patriot Act, through torture and phony WMDs, to failed wars of choice, the “Republican” response to 9/11 failed at everything except panicking the populace, fooling the foolish, and gulling the gullible.

Again by contrast, let’s look at the terrorist attack on the Boston Marathon. Obama didn’t order the whole country into lockdown; he did not order the invasions of Chechnya, Kyrgyzstan or Dagestan; no, the cops found the perps, who were then dealt with by the normal civilian judicial process.

Oh, and the guy behind the 9/11 attacks? The actual responsible party? You know, the Phil Robertson of Islam? Bush never cared enough to catch him. All Shrubya wanted was to steal money and grab power. Which the motherf***er did.

The moral of the story? We don’t need a national freakout when we’re attacked by enemies foreign or domestic: we just have to remain calm and use the resources that the Constitution gave us. That, Gentle reader, is how we exact justice upon terrorists.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

The Charlie Hebdo attack was not, repeat NOT about cartoons.

It was about terror, period. That’s what terrorists DO, remember. Terrorists terrorize. They can invent reasons for specific targets, yes, and they can claim responsibility, blame their victims and so on, but at sevens and last, terrorists cause terror. If Charlie Hebdo hadn’t printed some tasteless satirical ‘toons, the terrorists would not have done nothing: no, they’d have found a different target and claimed a different justification for their heinous actions. Because terror is what these mutts do.

Thnk about it: what do the Alfred P. Murrah building, the Manchester city center, the Tokyo subway and a Parisian magazine have in common? Apart from being terrorist targets, they have not one damned thing in common. But they were all attacked, weren’t they?

So don’t waste your time suggesting cartoonists tone down their work, don’t ban veils, don’t respond to any of the stated pretexts for any individual terrorist actions. In fact, don’t take any actions at all to placate the beasts: it will do no good. The only sure way to deal with terrorists is twofold: one part of it is relatively easy, the other is very difficult.

Part Number A: Capture or kill those terrorists who are actively involved in planning and carrying out terrorist acts. That’s not exactly easy and it sure as hell ain’t safe or pretty, but it’s straightforward police and military work. Lots of governments are engaged in this useful activity right now.

Part Letter 2: Get rid of the REASONS people become terrorists or support terrorists in the first place. This is fiendishly difficult work, and it won’t be accomplished anytime soon, but we need to start working on it. Terrorists are made, not born; and for what reasons are they made?

Terrorists are made because of inequality and injustice, which are used by unscrupulous motherf***ers to radicalize previously sane people via propaganda and desensitization. If there are no starving, marginalized or abused individuals to manipulate, there will be no terrorists made, because the raw materials won’t exist.

This is something not many people and almost no governments are actively doing, because it is enormously expensive and involves painful soul-searching on the parts of the oppressors (something oppressors are loathe to do). It ALSO involves the oppressors no longer being, well, oppressors. And how often do you see that happen?

How often do you see a Bashir Al-Assad or a Jamie Dimon voluntarily give up their holds on power and wealth? How often do you see such scumbuckets relinquish their death grips on the collective throats of those people they oppress, rob, starve, and manipulate? Ever seen it done? NEVER. But it must be done, and it is the only cure for terrorism. Remove the root cause, and you remove the effect.

So cartoon all you want, wear what you want, eat what you want, blaspheme all you care to. None of these things will make things any more or less safe. Because terrorists aren’t going away if you don’t offend them. They’ll only go away when there are no more terrorists.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Teapublicans, Communists, and Terrorists have a LOT in common:

Number A: They don’t care who they kill, so long as they get what they want. Teapublicans are responsible for deaths of women and children due to starvation, lack of medical care, or indistrial poisoning; Communists kill dissidents by the trainload; and Terrorists kill innocent people aplenty via cowardly acts of violence. So for all three of these groups, murder is one of their tools of choice.

Letter 2: They are blinded by their senseless “faith” and cannot see the real world and the facts on which it is built. Teapublicans cling to the fiction of Supply-Side economics even as it destroys the nation; Communists insist that Marxism-Leninism is the inevitable destiny of the world, even after almost every Marxist government has long-since collapsed; and Terrorists insist that their God/Sacred Cause wants them to kill us all and let Him/It sort us all out, when there is not a shred of evidence that their Deity (or Cause) does, in fact, exist. So for all three groups, living in a dream world is a defining characteristic, as is rejection of reality.

Thirdly: They keep on doing the same dumbass things over and over again, even though said dumbassery never, EVER works. Teapubbies keep on stealing our tax money and giving it to the 1%, even though the benefits never trickle down. Communists keep on oppressing their people, even though it never results in an egalitarian society. And Terrorists keep on murdering innocent people, even though all it does is unite the rest of the world against the terrorists. So for all three groups, they fit the old definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again, hoping for a different result.

So what ARE the differences between “Republicans”, Communists and Terrorists? Not much, really, unless you count wardrobe choices:



(Admit it: you thought the last one would be somebody in desert robes, didn’t you? Nope, it’s Timothy McVeigh, a home-grown terrorist.)

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

The NRA is Full of S***: A Horrific School Shooting in Pakistan Proved It.

Pakistan just had its own version of the Newtown school massacre. Heavily-armed lunatics stormed an army-run school in Peshawar and killed lots of innocent children. And this writer has already heard more than one gun nut say this proves the need for more private gun ownership. They draw a parallel between the two killing sprees and smugly proclaim that more “good guys with guns” could have protected the kids in Peshawar.

There is a teeny-tiny problem with this “argument”: it is bulls***. Pakistan is full of gun owners, good and otherwise.

Pakistan barely regulates guns at all. Their gun culture is NRA Nirvana. In fact, the Pakistan government hands out licenses for automatic weapons to citizens who are afraid of being attacked. Hell, you can legally carry grenades and rocket launchers in some parts of the country.

Plus, the school in question is operated by the Pakistani military. Do the gun nutters really think that country’s army is a bunch of anti-gun activists? Puh-leeze.

No, Gentle Reader, what this despicable atrocity demonstrates is that guns aren’t the solution for every criminal problem. You can carry all the firepower you want on your person, and still wind up dead if some a**hole gets the drop on you. And your kids can still be killed by homicidal motherf***ers like the Taliban, Timothy McVeigh, or Adam F***ing Lanza, no matter how many guns you sell to the general population.

Security cannot be obtained by guns alone. It is a product of careful thought, law, justice, collaboration and intelligence. NONE of which the NRA bothers with.

Guns are a Constitutional right, and one which this writer believes in and exercises. Carefully and in a responsible manner, with a focus on varmint control and home defense.

The only way to keep our kids safe from gun violence is to have a society with less violence. We will never achieve that by pushing our citizens to own and carry more guns so as to be ready to commit violent acts of their own.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky