2nd Amendment Hero relies on assault weapon, piles of ammo, to keep his family safe

Raw Story: Officials in Tennessee say that a father and his 12-year-old son died over the weekend died after an AR-15 assault-style rifle accidentally discharged, causing a fire and then a series of explosions in a room full of ammunition.

WBBJ-TV reported on Monday that Tennessee State Bomb and Arson Investigators, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and Henderson County Sheriff’s Department were all looking into the Sunday deaths 48-year-old Terry York and his son, Luke.

According to family members, York’s AR-15 rifle accidentally discharged while he was in a back room of their home showing it off to some friends. The discharge ignited a small fire, which “did not seem too threatening at first,” they told WBBJ-TV. The blaze apparently grew out of control after Luke entered the room to help his father put out fire.

That’s when witnesses started hearing explosions.

"It was just like one right after another," a neighbor said. "One explosion right after another. I just don’t have the words for it because I can not imagine having to go through something like this." The mother suffered second degree burns to her arms in trying to save the two. Sadly, she was unarmed and was therefore unable to shoot out the flames with her God-Given Second Amendment Freedoms.

Imagine a place where a clumsy moment can’t turn into a series of explosions that kill you and your twelve-year-old son and you’re imagining the nightmarish dystopia that Barack Obama and his gun-grabbing minions have in mind for America. Stand up for your right to own an AR-15 and a seriously stupid amount of ammunition. Stand up for your right to blow the living shit out of yourself and your children, because that’s clearly what the founders intended. If you can’t accidentally blow everyone sky-high, how can you possibly feel safe from hoodie-wearing gangstas and big gummint thugs?

What passes for ‘education’ on the right

ThinkProgress: Earlier this month, a Tennessee high schooler recorded an abstinence education assembly spearheaded by two right-wing leaders — and after details emerged about the topics discussed at the public school event, medical experts confirmed that they weren’t “completely accurate.” Health officials refuted some of the material, and local politicians expressed surprise that Tennessee’s public school students have been receiving false information.

As the Tennessean reports, the conservative speakers included Joi Wasill — who founded a nonprofit organization with strong religious, Republican, and anti-abortion ties — and Beth Cox, a member of a Tennessee county school board. The two women delivered an hour-long presentation for the freshmen and sophomores at Hillsboro High School. Wasill and Cox told students that all medical textbooks confirm that life begins at conception, there’s a new STD spreading around the country that’s worse than AIDS, contracting STDs will leave women infertile, and having sexual relations with eight different partners is the equivalent of drinking a whole classroom’s spit.

Cox told the young women in the room that if they became single mothers to boys, their sons wouldn’t have the necessary male role models in their lives to teach them “hunting, fishing, playing ball, all those things that teach them how to be a man.” During the second half, after Wasill took over, she asserted that “fetus” means the same thing as “baby” and adoption should always be assumed as the best option. If a girl is pregnant, send her straight to the nurse and give her prenatal vitamins, Wasill recommended. She also warned that abortion carries the risk of internal bleeding and death.

Apparently, “not completely accurate” is now identical to “completely inaccurate.” And it’s a reminder that religious conservatives are about the least trustworthy people in the world when it comes to education. These are people who believe their political opponents are literally the devil and his minions, so lying is just asymmetrical spiritual warfare. If telling you that abortion will grow you third eye will keep a kid from “killing her baby” and going to Hell, then a third eye it is. It’s not wrong to lie, it’s as right as right can possibly be and Jesus smiles down on every “not completely accurate” word with complete approval. They lie without hesitation.

These people have zero business inside a schoolhouse, since they have absolutely no interest in educating or in presenting students with the truth. Their only interest is to get students to comply with their own literally overzealous religious tenets — by hook or by crook, if need be.

“Religious fundamentalist” is a synonym for “liar,” plain and simple. Don’t trust these fanatics any farther than you can throw them.

[photo by kewl]

Tennessee Republicans realize bill doesn’t suck quite bad enough

Steve Benen:

[Religious bigotry is on display] in Tennessee, where a plan to transfer taxpayer money to religious academies is running into trouble as GOP lawmakers slowly realize that all religions will be eligible for public funds (via Adam Peck).

“This is an issue we must address,” state Sen. Jim Tracy (R-Shelbyville) said. “I don’t know whether we can simply amend the bill in such a way that will fix the issue at this point.”

State Sen. Bill Ketron (R-Murfreesboro) and Tracy each expressed their concerns Friday over Senate Bill 0196, commonly called the “School Voucher Bill” and sponsored by fellow Sen. Mark Norris (R-Collierville), which would give parents of children attending failing public schools a voucher with which to enroll in a private school.

If Bill Ketron’s name sounds familiar, he’s the guy who complained about a mop sink he thought might be used in Muslim worship.

No, they can’t “simply amend the bill in such a way” as to exclude Muslim schools. Nor Jewish or Wiccan or atheist or Satanic schools, for that matter. The Supreme Court will put up with a lot from rightwing Christian fanatics, but I can guarantee that wouldn’t fly.

But imagine how completely removed from logic these people must be. Here they are, complaining that taxpayer money may go to a religion they don’t support or belong to, while trying to “fix” a bill designed to take taxpayer money and give it to religions those taxpayers may not support or belong to. And they seem to have no idea what would be the problem with that. It simply never occurs to them that they’re trying to do the very thing to others that they find so worrisome now.

Tracy and Ketron have almost literally been blinded by their own hatred. The people of Tennessee don’t need to be saved from Muslims, they need to be saved from American Taliban like their own Republican legislators.

Tennessee offers proof that bigots are stupid

Mediaite:

Vocally “anti-Sharia law” GOP lawmakers in Tennessee had their fears quelled this week when they were assured that a mop sink in one state Capitol building was not secretly installed for use as a Muslim foot-washing station.

Tennessee’s legislature has long been the stage for some “anti-Sharia” efforts, including a 2011 bill proposal to make following certain tenets of the Muslim code a felony. The law, pushed by GOP lawmakers Sen. Bill Ketron and Rep. Judd Matheny, would have made illegal the Muslim practice of foot-washing before prayer, as well as some religion-specific dietary restrictions.

Of course, when you believe Sharia law is creeping into every facet of your daily life, you will likely believe that recent renovations to the state’s House Chamber building included the installation of a sink for Muslims to wash their feet before praying.

With that in mind, guess who was allegedly worried that a simple mop sink was secretly a post for Muslim foot-washing? If you guessed Ketron and Matheny, you win a good, hearty chuckle.

I have to admit, I did get a laugh out of this. These two seem to be determined to make complete asses of themselves. But the bigotry quickly takes all the fun out of it. If Ketron and Matheny get tons of mockery, it’s deserved mockery — but don’t forget the clowns who elected them.

They haven’t exactly covered themselves in glory. either.

[photo by JD Hancock]

News Roundup for 4/25/12

Rightwing domestic violence expert

-Headline of the Day-
"Religious right lobbies against VAWA."

OK, so what's the VAWA? That's the Violence Against Women Act. Why would so-called religious leaders be against that? "[B]ecause of new provisions that ensure that LGBT victims of domestic violence do not encounter discrimination while seeking help," the report tells us.

You know, because Jesus said you ought to be able to smack lesbians around if you want.

Actually, the idea is that anything that recognizes or protects LGBT people "normalizes" them. So it's better to pretend they don't exist because... Well, that's not extremely clear.

However, unlike the other War on Women fiascos the right has staged lately, this one includes at least one honest-to-goodness expert on the subject of violence against women. According to the report, a letter to the Judiciary Committee on the subject "was also signed by conservative activist Timothy Johnson, who was convicted of a felony domestic violence charge and was arrested a second time for putting his wife in a wrist lock and choking his son."

Apparently Bluebeard was unavailable. (Maddow Blog)


-Ladies man-



Of course, it's easy to be a ladies man when the only alternative to you is a pack of misogynistic psychopaths. (McClatchy)


-Bonus HotD-
"Tennessee Rep.: Bullied Gay Children Who Killed Themselves Didn’t Have ‘Proper Principles.’"

And so we hit the conservatives-are-just-dicks trifecta. (Wonkette)

Stories to Watch: 3/6/11

I made a bunch of sourdough pancakes earlier this week and froze them. Turned out great -- you just throw them in the toaster like those toaster-waffle-things and you're good to go. My breakfasts have improved immeasurably. Now here's the news...


Tennessee joins in the labor fight.


Most ridiculous item of the day: an editorial in the Sunday edition of the Wisconsin State Journal praises Scott Walker for getting tough with deficits and spending, saying, "Walker is largely doing in his budget proposal what he said he'd do: Fix the budget mess without raising taxes."

The problem? WSJ's own front page contradicts that with a story about a tax-hike on low-income families to cover giveaways to businesses. Since when does "largely" mean "not?"


It's Sunday, so that means it's time to have President McCain on a Sunday talk show. He comes on, says something completely wrong, and goes to find the signup sheet for next week's shift.


The Republican push to keep people out of the voting booth. The good news for me; the Wisconsin Republican version of voter ID is so poorly written and thought out that it amounts to a poll tax. "The legislation, as written, appeared to have constitutional problems that would shred it in court," wrote Dave Weigel Thursday. Keep overreaching for the stars, GOP! Democrats will thank you.


Finally, Gov. Walker lays off thousands. Oops! Messed that up... Governor Walker pretends to lay off thousands. The Wisconsin GOP have really been running a doorbuster sale on threats lately.

Stories to Watch: 1/19/11

Using Chrome more now, but I've got to say that my opinion of scribefire for the browser has changed. I started out thinking it was just OK, now I've concluded it's worthless. Right now, I'm blogging directly to blogger's editor, which I haven't done for a long time. This time, I've suped it up with Zemanta, so expect a lot more tags at the bottom of the post (as if you care). Now here's the news...


Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennesee says that GOP lies about healthcare reform resemble the work of Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels. True enough, but maybe this isn't the best time to bring that up. Conservatives -- who have no problem comparing a certain Democratic president to Hitler -- were, as always, quick to play the victim card. It's possible to point out that Republicans are shameless liars without tempting Godwin. Just sayin'.


Hillary won't commit to a second term as Secretary of State. Expect the baseless CLINTON WILL RUN AGAINST OBAMA! speculation to start any second now.


In what may be a sign of progress, Gabrielle Giffords will be moved from "University Medical Center to Houston’s TIRR Memorial Hermann Rehabilitation hospital, which specializes in helping people recover from brain injuries."


Seriously, can John Boehner be bothered to show up for anything?


Finally, the most trusted name in news? PBS. Fox News is in fourth place, but that's down 16 points from last year's PPP TV news poll.