Infectious dis-ease

By Carl

It appears our ammosexuality is contagious:

(CNN) -- In a country often stereotyped for being too genteel, the Canadian city of Moncton prides itself on a special distinction: It was named the most polite.

So what happened here Wednesday seems unimaginable to residents.

A man dressed in fatigues and carrying a rifle went on a rampage, killing three police officers and wounding two others.

Police posted to social media a photograph of a man dressed in fatigues, carrying what appeared to be a rifle.

Thursday morning, the shooter was still on the loose.

I hope you’re happy, gun nuts: you’ve managed to turn the politest place in the politest country on the fucking planet into a shooting range. 

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By your leave

By Carl

I meant to blog about this when the baseball season opened in April but it slipped my mind. Thankfully I have a second chance to:

CHICAGO -- New York Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy and his family will be guests at the White House on Monday for a discussion about the state of working dads.

Murphy received talk-radio backlash after choosing to take paternity leave and miss the team's first two games of the season to be present for the birth of his first child on March 31. Murphy's wife Tori gave birth to 8-pound, 2-ounce son Noah about an hour before the first pitch of the Mets' season.

The White House Summit on Working Families will be held in the South Court Auditorium of the White House. It aims to advance talk about how fathers play a role at home, discuss the challenges of balancing a career and family, and advocate for rights such as parental leave from work.

Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors Jason Furman will participate in the discussion along with Murphy.

It’s really odd how this nation gets so hung up on bad choices that parents make – single moms, dads abandoning children, divorce – and so uptight about how children need both parents in their lives, and here comes a story of a man, a high-profile professional baseball player, taking a few days off at what amounts to a meaningless time in the season, to assist in the birth of his baby. 

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Transient sanity events

By Capt. Fogg

Particles do escape from black holes, or so argues Steven Hawking. the phenomenon is called Hawking radiation. Things do escape beyond the event horizon at the NRA as well apparently. It's called a Transient Sanity Event.

Members of Open Carry Texas, people who think it's really cool to act like a 6 year old with his new Hopalong Cassidy cap gun on Christmas morning, are cutting their NRA membership cards in half over a statement that somehow escaped the gravitational well of craziness and irresponsibility:

Let’s not mince words. Not only is it rare, it’s downright weird and certainly not a practical way to go normally about your business while being prepared to defend yourself. To those who are not acquainted with the dubious practice of using public displays of firearms as a means to draw attention to oneself or one’s cause, it can be downright scary.

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The price of freedom

By Carl

People are allowed to think, say, and yes, even tweet whatever the hell they want, so long as their actions do not contravene the law. They are still American citizens: 

Since Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was captured in the mountains of Afghanistan in 2009, his father had become an expert on Guantanamo Bay’s detainees. It was out of necessity, because the Taliban demanded that the United States free prisoners from Guantanamo in exchange for Bergdahl.

“No family in the United States understands the detainee issue like ours,” Robert Bergdahl said in a 2011 plea to his son’s captors.

So it wasn’t entirely unusual when Bergdahl apparently published a tweet last week about Guantanamo’s detainees. Except this tweet was directed at a Taliban spokesman. And it came just four days before it was announced that his son was finally being released.

“I am still working to free all Guantanamo prisoners,” the tweet said, according to various screen grabs. The tweet was subsequently deleted. “God will repay for the death of every Afghan child, ameen.”

This God-person also hates fags, but few of the current critics of the Bergdahls seem to have too much problem with that. Likewise when God strikes down (fill in the blank)_____________ with a (tornado, flood, terrorist attack), those same people whose panties are in a twist over Bergdahl’s desperate attempts to keep his son out of harm, alive long enough to secure his return, seem somehow to remain silent. 

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Impeach Obama, Court Martial Bergdahl

By Capt. Fogg

Damn the troops, Damn everything. We're the Republicans

Didn't you see it coming? The release -- let's call it a rescue -- of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl from the clutches of the Taliban after 5 years should have been a feel-good story for all of us as well as his friends and family in these days of supporting the heroic troops, but a country pleased with anything, even for an afternoon, just can't be allowed by the party that has long made it it's business to tell us just how awful things are and just how it's Obama's fault. As you know, some Guantanamo "detainees" yet to be tried for anything, were taken custody of by agents of Qatar in exchange for Bergdahl's release. Even an old cynic like me went looking for a flag to fly.

Before the rest of us had finished saying "welcome home," Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe, the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, sternly warned America that this would have dire but unidentified consequences for all of us and of course "the troops." Let the Inquisition, the disgusting denunciations and fear mongering begin. What did you expect?

That Obama, said Oklahoma Jim, “clearly violated laws” that require him to notify Congress 30 days before any transfer of terrorists from Guantanamo Bay. He betrayed us all, as is his wont, by failing to explain to Congress how the threat of releasing the satanic horde had been substantially mitigated before uncorking the Guantanamo bottle and thus denied the Grand Old Bastards the opportunity to filibuster, stall, vilify and ultimately prevent the recovery of Bergdahl, who, up until now, had been an illustration of Obama's uncaring negligence.

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