thepete.tumblr.comPosts tagged news
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“evidence of god’s great mercy in the news” [aurora]follow for the best atheist posts on tumblr
I can just imagine Eric Idol bleeding to death in the movie theater while singing the lyrics to “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.”](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7vsxsw2Bz1rt8sgdo1_400.png)
“evidence of god’s great mercy in the news” [aurora]
follow for the best atheist posts on tumblr
I can just imagine Eric Idol bleeding to death in the movie theater while singing the lyrics to “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.”
The truth is made worse by the reality that no one—really no one—anywhere on the political spectrum has the courage to speak out about the madness of unleashed guns and what they do to American life. That includes the President, whose consoling message managed to avoid the issue of why these killings take place. Of course, we don’t know, and perhaps never will, what exactly “made him” do what he did; but we know how he did it. Those who fight for the right of every madman and every criminal to have as many people-killing weapons as they want share moral responsibility for what happened last night—as they will when it happens again. And it will happen again.
Adam Gopnik on the Aurora movie mheater shooting and American gun culture: http://nyr.kr/MwUIER
“Those who fight for the right of every madman and every criminal to have as many people-killing weapons as they want…”
OK, Adam, show me one person who does this. Show me one person who frames their “right to bear arms” argument in those terms and I’ll agree with you.
This is just more over-simplification of the gray world we live in to appeal to our gut reactions. The reality is that the VAST majority of gun owners use them responsibly.
This is what disgusts me about Americans today—shock either “side” of our culture enough (liberal or conservative) and they’ll cry out for fascist-like powers and demand sweeping changes to the law to create the illusion of safety. Even worse, they also forget the principles of freedom and equality that this nation was allegedly founded upon.
Banning all guns from the hands of all Americans is trying and finding guilty all Americans before any crime is committed.
I don’t like guns, I don’t own a gun, I’m for gun regulations that require gun training before being allowed to carry a gun, but I’m not for banning guns. I don’t have the numbers in front of me, but I suspect the number of gun deaths caused by guns owned by American citizens is substantially lower than deaths caused by cars or cancer or even terrorism—yet how rational are we in regards to any of those threats?
It’s ridiculous that Americans need to be reminded that the cost of freedom is sometimes death. How many brave Americans died to protect our freedom over the 200+ years America has been around? Much more than 12. And we’re freaked out because another crazy asshole used a gun to kill people?
You’re damn right it’ll happen again, but until we ban all cars from the streets, I’m thinking anyone talking about a gun ban has not taken a hard look at reality.
Not that I blame them—reality sucks. But if we don’t look, we can’t change it.
Seriously—do you think the number of gun deaths per day comes close to the number of car-related deaths per day?
I was shown how fragile life was on Saturday. I saw the terror on bystanders’ faces. I saw the victims of a senseless crime. I saw lives change. I was reminded that we don’t know when or where our time on Earth will end. When or where we will breathe our last breath. For one man, it was in the middle of a busy food court on a Saturday evening.
I say all the time that every moment we have to live our life is a blessing. So often I have found myself taking it for granted. Every hug from a family member. Every laugh we share with friends. Even the times of solitude are all blessings. Every second of every day is a gift. After Saturday evening, I know I truly understand how blessed I am for each second I am given.
I feel like I am overreacting about what I experienced. But I can’t help but be thankful for whatever caused me to make the choices that I made that day. My mind keeps replaying what I saw over in my head. I hope the victims make a full recovery. I wish I could shake this odd feeling from my chest. The feeling that’s reminding me how blessed I am. The same feeling that made me leave the Eaton Center. The feeling that may have potentially saved my life.
”Jessica Redfield (real last name: Ghawi) was shot and killed last night at a midnight screening of ‘The Dark Knight Rises,’ along with 11 others when a gunman opened fire in a theater. The above is from her blog, written in June, after she narrowly escaped another senseless shooting at a mall in Toronto. (via newsweek)
Proof that, if there is a god, he’s pretty much a dick. She just comes to really cherish life and she’s dead a month later under nearly identical circumstances. Yeah, definitely a dick move by God.
But it’s OK since we can just vote Obama out! …OH WAIT… I think Democracy is brokies.
Close Shark Encounters On U.S. Coasts
Great white sharks are flocking near beaches on all coasts looking for seals and bumping into humans.
DUDE! START PADDLING, MAN!!!
Reblogging for “oh hell yes.”
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Stupid hippie liberal!
That’s what they’ll call him despite him being 100% right. It must be nice living in a world so simplified that labels can be used to ignore well reasoned, logical arguments and FACTS.
We need to impeach every last Republican and every last Democrat who doesn’t agree to impeach every last Republican. Purge these shitheads out of Washington.
Our country is screwed and all they can do in DC is bitch and moan about “controversies” and “national security” when people are suffering and dying every day thanks to the economy, shitty health care (Obamacare’s not going to fix everything—not by a long shot) and the utter lack of new jobs.
This November we should just not vote in the national election. Democrat and Republican, alike, neither party is representing our views. Fuck those guys. We were stupid to think change was possible under Obama or anyone else. This shit is broken.
*I’m listening to Sunna on my iPod right now, so I may sound more angry than I really am.
![discoverynews:
Seriously, When Will the Heat End?
We have the answers. Not all promising, sadly.
keep reading
From the above linked piece:
THE GIST
The East Coast should see some letting up soon.
Parts of the west will see a more dramatic letting up of the heat.
The heat is due in part to a persistent high-pressure system, also called a heat ridge or dome.
A bit more from the end of the article:
Climate change?
The early heat waves of summer — following higher temperatures in spring and winter — could be part of apattern of climate change.
“It’s consistent with what we’d expect in a warming climate,” Crouch said. [Video: Earth’s Warming Since 1880]
Carbin went further, saying that this persistent high heat — stretching back through the winter —and extended drought nationwide are the exact features predicted to occur in a warming world. “An increasing frequency of heat waves, that’s one aspect of climate change you can point to,” Carbin said.
The future is now, kids! Good thing we planned for it! OH WAIT.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6ralrCoPK1qmkxx9o1_400.jpg)
Seriously, When Will the Heat End?
We have the answers. Not all promising, sadly.
From the above linked piece:
THE GIST
- The East Coast should see some letting up soon.
- Parts of the west will see a more dramatic letting up of the heat.
- The heat is due in part to a persistent high-pressure system, also called a heat ridge or dome.
A bit more from the end of the article:
Climate change?
The early heat waves of summer — following higher temperatures in spring and winter — could be part of apattern of climate change.
“It’s consistent with what we’d expect in a warming climate,” Crouch said. [Video: Earth’s Warming Since 1880]
Carbin went further, saying that this persistent high heat — stretching back through the winter —and extended drought nationwide are the exact features predicted to occur in a warming world. “An increasing frequency of heat waves, that’s one aspect of climate change you can point to,” Carbin said.
The future is now, kids! Good thing we planned for it! OH WAIT.
Plus a bonus No. 11: free birth control!
Wait, so there’s only good news, here? That means health care is FIXED!?!?! YAY!!
Wait… wait… maybe you’re covering this with some bias?
Hold everyone’s feet to the fire—that’s a journalist’s job. It’s fine to report the positive, but leave out the negative and you’re not doing your job.
“The Empowered Man,” by a Utah tea party painter who loves liberty and is not at all making a racial comment.
“There’s something simmering deep inside the soul of all Americans,” the artist says. “We want to know that we’re a free people. That the government acknowledges our individual rights and that fiscal responsibility is an absolute requirement.”
Along with Carhartt jackets and blue jeans.
“Do we have freedom when one half of the country pays taxes to support the other half?” the artist asks.
Maybe he should stick to painting and grumbling to himself about this “other half”. We’ve debunked his statement here, and here, and here, and here.
It’s amazing that people can look at a document and interpret so incredibly differently from the way others do. It’s hard to not look at this guy and think he’s an idiot—and he probably is, but calling him that to his face won’t help. I just wish there was a way to encourage everyone to be critical of everything and no trust anything our parents taught us. I feel like that’s the right’s big problem. If they were good at critical thinking they’d realize that can’t be rich/greedy and get into a heaven that can’t be proven to exist. They’d also realize that this country has, as its advertising slogan, the principle of equality for all—so banning gay marriage, abortions, mosques too close to Ground Zero, etc, shouldn’t be things they are for.
Aside from all that, it’s a shame this guy doesn’t understand subtlety.
(via)
The only reason we have trains at all in the US is because we keep bailing out Amtrak. We need to start encouraging train travel and discouraging people from owning cars.
I once had a conversation with someone who wished she had a car just so she could go buy furniture at Ikea. I asked her if paying for furniture to be delivered would be cheaper than buying a car. She shrugged and said that it was about convenience.
She’d never owned a car before, but as someone who had, I couldn’t help but wonder if the cost of registration, fuel, maintenance and insurance ever occurred to her. Not to mention the mental stress of driving and the time lost in traffic and so on. Since ditching my own car almost ten years ago, I can honestly say I’m so much better for it.
If there was a bullet train to any major city in America from NYC, I would look for reasons to take it. So, not only would it create jobs and rebuild our infrastructure, it would also bring tourists from other cities. That means more jobs to support the influx of tourists and their dollars.
Seems like a no-brainer to me.
