Disgusting conspiracy

When a young man walked into Sandy Hook Elementary school and shot multiple bullets into small children in a 1^st grade classroom I could not fully believe it.  I checked to see if it was a town where a friend lived and it wasn’t, I moved on.  Later a colleague said a bunch of kids were shot.  I clicked into it and found some of the story.  Again, I didn’t believe it.  I wanted to think this was the cable news trying to rush news to air quickly and not accurately.  But that night when I saw the news, when I read the reports, when I heard local officials speaking about it, I believed.  In the days that followed I saw the deconstruction of what was again bad reporting, the number of guns, which ones, how many shooters, where it happened, who were the players.  This has become common in a culture where the news is always on and crisis news is the bread and butter of what passes for journalism on the internet and television.  Many news sources reported wildly inaccurate information as fact, but those mistakes were explainable by the sloppiness of the journalists.  However others saw it as sign of something nefarious. 

To my surprise, horror and shock there is an entire segment of the internet dedicated to what are being called Sandy Hook truthers.  That is right, like 9-11, there are people that almost immediately started calling the events a hoax.  There are many different theories.  One says that no one was killed and the parents and others in the news are actors citing, among other things, the way the parents acted in private moments caught on camera, or before speaking of their children.  The extent of this is to suggest no one is actually dead, again citing a photo of one of the victim’s sisters on the President’s lap asking if this isn’t the girl who was murdered.   One says that it was a government action, that it was CIA operatives who did the killing.  The reason for these?  The President wants gun control.  Oh course so does a majority of the country and while the numbers have gone up since Sandy Hook, this was not an issue on the President’s agenda.  But there it is.  My favorite conspiracy is that it was Mossad agents, attacking the United States to hurt the President for a number of things, including the nomination of former Senator Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense.  The idea being that Israel was upset that Hagel has had a real vocal past that some perceive as anti-Israel. 

Like most conspiracy theories a hidden bad guy has been uncovered by a tireless person by linking together a variety of factoids, strange coincidences and outright falsehoods.  In these stories about Sandy Hook wild accusations are leveled based on the thinnest of evidence, but that is always true for a conspiracy yarn.  But there is something that I can only say is sinister about these people who are promoting these so-called theories.  The one about Israel is par for the course.  In the last 2000 years Jews have been blamed from everything from the fall of Rome to the plague to 9-11 to Hurricane Katrina.  I think the fact that a 6 year old Jewish kid was killed was the only thing that didn’t have a whole slew of people saying that the Jews were warned.   But that is not the worst of it.  The one thing about some of the conspiracy theorists is how comfortable they are attacking the people who lost children.  In many of the videos on the net there are claims that the families of the victims are paid actors and the evidence is the way they mourn, they way they talk and the fact they smile.  One person actually says that it is no way that a person who lost their child would act.  How would this guy know?  Seriously is there a book that could teach him that?  And if that was all there was it would be horrible but there is a weirder part of these theories.  In a video that has over 10 million hits one guy suggests that one of the children killed, Emilie Parker, isn’t dead and that her wake, funeral and grave are all a hoax.  In fact the evidence is a picture of the President meeting with the family.  A child on the lap of the President looks like Emile and is wearing the same dress from a photo pulled from the families online photo album.  Now it is clear to anyone the picture is of Emilie’s younger sister who also had the same style of dress, but for the conspiracy theories.  Their need for special knowledge does not allow for them to practice common decency and now if you Google Emile’s name the first several hits are questioning whether she is still alive.  So to be clear, the parents of a dead child are not only being questioned about their emotions on camera but the memory of their dead daughter will always be tainted by the fact that so many people will continue to believe she is still alive, hidden from view and being exploited for some kind of policy goal.  I can’t even imagine. 

There was a time when this kind of stuff was roundly rejected by ordinary people.  It wasn’t that long ago when these kinds of reactions were met with more skepticism especially when it involved the death of ordinary citizens.  But massive distrust of government, the news and of course each other has led to a rampant paranoia that finds a home on the internet and is perpetuated by massive ignorance coupled by the ability to distill massive information of into whatever we want it to say.   Conspiracy has become mainstream, be it Donald Trump’s birtherism, Wayne LaPierre’s ignorant zealotry, or even the members of Congress who repeat lies about things like the Affordable Care Act.  We must reject this, wherever it comes from.  Ten million people watched this disgusting video, if all who saw it for what it was told two friends to respond we could make it go away.  But even more so we must do the same when a member of a lobbying group, or political campaign or member of Congress lies.  As I finish this up I am watching Mr. LaPirerre lie about the President to the NRA.  I look forward to someone taking this clown apart, he is no better than the person to made the video and gun owners should feel ashamed. 

Right Wing Noise Machine

The recent gun debate and re-election of the President has really empowered the right wing noise machine on radio and Fox News.  This new energy after the pathetic defeat of the ideals they hold dear in the last elections has sparked many posters on Facebook, Twitter and Internet message board clogging them with lies and some times with simple filth.  Attacks on anyone, even a fellow member of the right, who dares suggest that talking about gun restrictions, have polluted the airwaves pitting former friends against each other.  The stunning thing to me is the number of sheer ridiculous statements made about an incredibly important and dangerous issue facing our country.

Guns are part of the American culture and history.  Guns were important to the colonial survival and industry.  Guns helped to win the fight for independence and over power the British.  It was guns that allow explorers to have the confidence to move west.  While not all encounters driving by personally owned guns were ethical, moral and righteous, guns did help settle the west even beyond the mythology that we think happened.  Guns are not going away and no one who is serious wants all guns to go away.  But you see there is a place to discuss what guns can exist in private hands, how many rounds one should be able to shoot without reloading and how much the government and law enforcement should know about who is owning guns.

The National Rifle Association, that speaks for the gun industry (though the profess to speak for gun owners) came out a week after the shooting as Sandy Hook Elementary where 20 kids between 5-7 years old were murdered with 6 adults and concluded the guns were not the problem and we should put arm guards in schools.  Problem solved.  Thank you Mr. LaPierre.  Except we know armed guards can help and might be a good solution for part of it but it is not the only answer.  In fact a armed guard traded fire with Columbine shooter Eric Harris and weeks later then the NRA was meeting with Vice-President Joe Biden to discuss solutions, an armed student injured 2 people at a school with an armed guard.  At the very same moment.  The NRA would have you believe that we have no business talking about the weapons used and their minions both in Congress and on the radio repeated their words.

Now that the President has released his first volley in a series of executive orders and New York State has passed a series of laws there is more craziness.  The NRA has released an ad that has been universally called disgusting as it brings the President's children into the equation and of course the Tea Party members are calling for impeachment.  Ah, everything old is new again.  But there is some cracking in the Republican wall.  Many are saying that some regulations on clips and types of guns are necessary as are some high profile generals like some guy named Colin Powell and another Stanley McCrystal.  Of course the noise machine has attacked them.  Steve Doocey at Fox even seemed to forget he was Secretary of State at one time in an attack on him.

One guy however took the new energy of the right to a new level.  Alex Jones started a petition to deport Piers Morgan, a British National on CNN who is an outspoken advocate on gun control.  Jones is a special kind of crazy and the perfect foil for Morgan, who has the journalistic integrity of Rita Skeeter.  Jones, a conspiracy nut who loves to hear himself scream, has been know to hijack movements he agrees with if he isn't in the front of the line.  So he went on the show and deliciously lost his shit for the whole world to see.  We heard revolution, 9-11 was an inside job, the grassy knoll and all manner of ridiculous notions.  In the end I needed a shower and Morgan needed a Xanax.  It was funny, it was nuts and it was par for the course.

What was interesting is the next day a members of the right wing noise machine elite, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck weighed in on Jones trying to distance themselves from him.  Both suggested that the left was making Jones the story and Hannity even said on his show he had to "look him up".  But what is amazing is that for years Jones attacked Hannity regularly and was a bit of a regular on Hannity's former partner Alan Colmes' radio show often attacking Sean.  You would think that someone would have told him about it.  Also the incestuous nature of the noise machine means he would have to be so detached from his profession as to be exactly what some have thought, just a puppet of someone else.  Hannity and Beck both are trying to distance themselves from Jones and while I agree they are not cut from the same cloth they are all in the same section of JoAnn's.

Joe Scarborough, a conservative MSNBC host and a constant critic of the failures of the GOP and a lifetime A+ rated NRA guy lost it.  He came out in favor of some kind of gun reform that included restrictions on large clips and so-called assault weapons. (Yes I know that is a political term)  He was called all manner of things by others of his own party and conservative ideology.  In fact I think they had to change their handshake and not tell him.  It is amazing, here a voice of an attempt at reason and middle ground is attacked.  While Joe doesn't care, he makes money being himself and isn't running for office it is a bit crazy that his body of work, carrying right wing water and trying to help the party is ignored because he simply ask the GOP to consider restrictions.  

What is amazing is the clear lack of self-reflection on the part of the noise machine. Anyone who tears the curtain down and shows just how crazy the noise machine has become is savaged. Anyone who comes close to thinking for themselves and going off the reservation are savaged.    When outrageous statements are made by the NRA or elected officials there is constant justifying.

I believe in the right to bear arms, I believe that it is not only about hunting and target shooting, and I believe we must do more than just go after guns.  But we must have a serious discussion about certain types of weapons and clips and perhaps make them less ubiquitous.  But the bigger issue in this discussion and many discussions is that we have become a country driven by a noise machine and that I think is far more dangerous in the long run than any AR-15.

Vegas

So we went to Las Vegas and had tons of fun, but as always there were lessons to be learned.  I just want to make a few observations so you can share in our fun on this trip.  I really was surprised at the number of people in Vegas for the Christmas holiday and frankly how little I felt the Christmas was on us.  It was funny though that a couple weeks after Hanukah there was still a giant menorah on Freemont Street.  But really the only real Christmas feel came from the fact that every so often I would run into a drunk couple with Santa hats on or a woman dressed as an elf letting people take pictures with her for tips.  But elves really would have more clothes on, it is cold at the North Pole.  

It was a great trip and we did have to add to the trip because the snow in Indiana so we got to enjoy an extra night.  It meant spending more money than we wanted to on adult beverages, but that is just what you do on vacation right?  But there are certain things that you might not want to do on vacation, so here is some advice. 

1. When the pilot feels the need to announce for the third time to honor the seatbelt light on the plane pay attention.  Turbulence will toss you around if you are walking around the plane.  I know it is hard to believe but you aren’t Superman.  It takes a lot to make the Southwest flight attendants angry, you should be proud. 
2. Understand that even though you have stepped off the escalator, that doesn’t mean it stops.  People are coming up behind you, don’t just stand there trying to figure out what out which direction you want to turn.  There is a Law of Physics that states we can’t both occupy the same space at the same time.  You will be run into, sorry that means you spilled your way overpriced alcoholic Kool-Aid.
3. To that end, while it makes for a cool picture the walkway crossing the Strip is not a photo studio.   I promise I will wait to let you take a picture but when you set up a tripod and start composing a scene by moving the family around you will get photo-bombed. 
4. Also unintended photobombs are so common in Vegas we should think of a special name for them.  I just can’t believe how surprised people are when you walk into their photo however that they are talking, in an elevator that is open, in a walkway, in front of restroom doors, etc.  What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but is well documented for further use? 
5. Family vacations are fun, but if you find yourself being told by a casino boss that just because the slot machine has cartoon characters on it does not mean you are allowed to have a toddler on your lap while you play you might consider your next family vacation at real Disneyland. 
6. Oh and the long hallways of the MGM are designed for running, I get that.  Just not 3am with your toddler laughing so loud car alarms are going off. 
7. If you stood in line to get tickets to a show who’s title plays off the 50 Shades of Gray books, and you know it is marketed that way, don’t complain that there is a number in it with handcuffs and bondage.  That is the hook that got many of the others there.  It is like going to the Christmas show and complaining you don’t like the colour red.  

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So there it is. I am not really complaining I just noticed these things and wanted to share. People watching was a good part of the trip but mostly it was getting away with Dianne and having fun things to do we don’t normally do here in Indy.  Big props to southwest airlines for helping us avoid the storm and not charging us for the change to what turned out to be a better flight.  Bit ups to MGM for basically giving us a free night.  If you find yourself in Vegas and want great food and the buffet experience the Wicked Spoon is amazing, and the single portion presentation is amazing.

I hope whatever you did at the end of the year was great for you.  Enjoy and New Year and no worries, I will get back to writing about politics, religion and the world around.  I mean I hear there is a fiscal cliff we are about to go over, as Thelma said to Louise, “Let’s keep going”.

Still Waiting for the End of the World

I know people who were preparing for the end of the world today, just in case.  They aren’t spending thousands or hundreds of thousands on bunkers or creating a series of safe houses in the wilds of Montana, but bought bottled water, canned goods, ammo etc.  They said that it was hedging a bet, you know who knows what will happen?  That is an odd way to go through life.  While I am sure they would find it crazy to buy an amulet to ward off werewolves, it is the same mindset.  In fact, I am sure not only does an anti-werewolf amulet exist someone has a really nice house because of it.  You see we are as Charles Pierce calls it, living in Idiot America. 

In Pierce’s Idiot America facts are unimportant.  Flash, feelings and what Steve Colbert called truthiness are what drive a discussion.  Internet memes and often repeated falsehoods take on a life of their own and become statements that do not need proof but must be proved wrong by anyone questioning it.  Take the often-repeated story 15 years ago that Al Gore said he invented the Internet.  It wasn’t true, wasn’t close to true.  But we still hear it today.  Moving forward many people get their information from sources that are interested in making their listeners or readers feel good so they stick with them so facts are less important than making the fan base happy.  In the last Presidential election that quickly translated to the tactic of a candidate who’s spokesperson said, when confronted with a fact-checked ad, that fact checkers would not direct the campaign.  Think about that.  A candidate for the Presidency was not going to allow people to prove him lying to have a voice in his thinking.  It reminds me of the opening statement at the Creation Museum in Kentucky.  It states openly that anything that is found that doesn’t prove their reading of the Bible would be rejected as untrue, regardless of evidence. 

It is in this world that it is easy to get people to invest in 2012 bunkers at prices reaching $1.7 million and sending money to a man who says he will save the world by jumping off of Bell Rock in Sedona.  The latter of the two was fascinating, not sure what he needed the money for but his website had a large PayPal section.  Perhaps the temporal vortex he was going to slide through to reboot the computer program that he says is our reality has an entry fee.  As of this writing he was suppose to make the jump at 6:12 this am.  No word that he did it but we are all here.  So…..

So in the wake of the deadly shooting in Newtown Connecticut we were ripe for fiction in the response.  First came the idea that this never happened when we had prayer in school, which of course is not true at all.  There were school shootings in the country before it was a country but even more so, the last school shooting was at a Christian college.  Then we had a repeated notion that we shouldn’t do anything to modify gun ownership in this country as the 9-11 hijackers used box cutters.  Funny I can no longer take box cutters or any other sharp objects on planes.  In fact because someone tried to ignite a bomb in his shoe I have to have my shoes x-rayed on each trip and because someone had a liquid explosive in his underwear we can’t take liquids in quantity on planes and women have to prove their breast milk is breast milk.   My favorite meme was that this doesn’t happen in Israel because Israeli teachers are armed.  While that is untrue it didn’t stop people from reposting a picture of a security guard with a group of children on a field trip.  Seeing as some of the areas of Israel can be considered war zones, that kinda makes sense.   Which led to Wayne LaPierre, the head of the NRA speaking at what he trolled people into thinking was press conference but was a statement inform of reporters as he didn’t take questions.  What he called for was a registry of the mentally ill (something that exists in 36 states) and an armed police officer in every of the nations 100,000 public schools.  What the NRA fails to mention or even acknowledge is that at Columbine, an armed guard exchanged fire with Eric Harris.   These can certainly be part of the solution in general but they are a starting point not an ending point.  LaPierre and the NRA does not want to begin to discuss limiting access to guns, in fact they lobbied recently to allow people on the terror watch list to get guns. 

But what LaPierre said made the right feel good.  They cheered him on and made fun of protesters who tried to disrupt the statement.  By tomorrow there will be people continued the lies about gun free zones and the use of armed guards in grocery stores, banks and churches.  And people will believe every word. 

Today is a holiday to Idiot America, both those who threw money at hucksters who were going to save them from Planet X, solar flares or returning Mayan gods and those who would rather believe a lobbyist or talk show host over real evidence. 

So, it really doesn’t matter what you believe is the best course of action, either about crazy fake prophecy or about the current social and fiscal problems facing our country what you should do is find a way to get real information.  I know I used some right wing examples and that is my frustration for today but I could have easily said the right is not going to push grandma over a cliff, Romney did not kill a woman with cancer and rich people don’t want to have slavery return.  We are better than that.  We are smarter than that and we can find a way to come together and leave the shrill voices alone.

Happy Solstice and welcome to the end of world.