Category: Journalism

Thoughts on Sandy Hook

I’m not impressed by claims that mass shootings aren’t becoming more common. Compared the when? Where?

I accuse, in part, the violent toxins Hollywood pours into Television screens and movie theaters. Cathartic? So’s a fix for a junkie – until next time.

It behooves us to remember that murderers are real people, with families and lives. They’re not stock villains. They’re us, messed up – which may be why we’re so eager for distance. Take a look here and here, for instance.

Father Jonathan Tobias made A Pledge. My Lutheran brother thought it had too much “I will,” and that “I will” is especially futile for the mentally ill. I perhaps misrepresented it as “A 12-step program for not becoming Adam Lanza.” So take it for exactly what the author says about it. I still think it’s wise and largely effectual (though brother has a point about mental illness). Then use it as you will. (My Lutheran brother and I, by the way, continue to disagree, primarily over sola scriptura and synergy. That’s why he’s Lutheran and I’m Orthodox. Either of us would lack integrity trying to switch religion while retaining our current convictions.)

LaPierreNRA

http://www.danzigercartoons.com/

KeefeM20121218_low

http://editorialcartoonists.com/cartoon/display.cfm/117985

Why are we so quick to blame the NRA, single-minded defenders of the Second Amendment and nonprofit, while we run shrieking from the room if someone dares blame Hollywood, profiteers wrapped in the mantle of the First Amendment, or the makers of violent video games? As a friend asked on Facebook, “why give books for Christmas?” The answer is “because a scented candle never changed anyone’s life.” We are affected by what we read, view, and steep ourselves in. Quentin Tarantino has a lot more blood on his hands than Wayne LaPierre.

Quoting Eugene Volokh: “One can’t just deal with these questions through broad generalities, whether ‘we can’t do anything’ or ‘we must do something.’” You wouldn’t know that from the conversation that’s transpiring on the PBS News Hour as I write. The entire focus is gun control. There’s no focus on mental health care or on violent games. The only good thing is they’re focusing on the big clips, not on firearms generally. But what assurance have we that banning the clips will be effective? That’s not a rhetorical question.

* * * * *

Some succinct standing advice on recurring themes.

Gotcha!

First, let me acknowledge that Richard Mourdock’s detour into theodicy added nothing to his answer on abortion for pregnancy resulting from rape. He could simply have said that all life is inestimably valuable  regardless of the circumstances of conception.

That said, I fail to find anything monstrous in his gratuitous comment: “I struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize life is a gift from God, and I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something God intended to happen.” (Emphasis in his voice)

What’s the alternative? Taking the rape and the detour into God’s will as givens, was God caught napping when he should have been dispensing Plan B or Ella? Would one of the baying dogs be willing to break away from the howling pack and help me here?

A generally pro-life conservative candidate cannot win on this question: “What is your position about the legality of abortion when a pregnancy results from rape?” Here are his or her alternatives, paraphrased by the left blogosphere. Stop if you’re easily offended.

  1. “I don’t think abortion should be legal even in cases of rape because I’m a soulless misogynist bastard religious fanatic sonofabitch who has no sympathy for women in tragic circumstances.”
  2. “I don’t think abortion should be illegal in cases of rape because I am a soulless misogynist bastard religious fanatic sonofabitch who considers compulsory motherhood the just penalty for sluts who actually have sex on purpose, and a rape victim may not be a slut, though most women are these days.”

Questions about abortion are legitimate, and a candidate for U.S. Senate ought to have a better-rehearsed answer ready. I don’t blame the press for asking, but I do wish they’d question the Friends of Feticide just as closely on their support for things like partial birth abortion and public financing of abortion.

This kerfuffle has made me likelier – much likelier this day of the 15 minute Mourdock hate – to vote for Mourdock, about whom my feelings are otherwise rather mixed.

Thank you for letting me vent about one of few campaign incidents that has riled me this pathetic year.

* * * * *

Some succinct standing advice on recurring themes.