Thursday, May 15, 2014

An Invitation to Nevadans and to Liberals in Illiberal Places

I'd like to start by asking all those who are currently living in right-wing hell-holes in this country to consider moving to the Northeast Kingdom of our once-great country. This began as an invite to the folks  in Nevada who are burdened with sharing their state with Cliven Bundy and his gang of over-armed and under-educated militia members. I'm also asking all those who are unhappy living under the rule of King Andrew to consider moving to one of these right-wing hell-holes where you undoubtedly be  happier. I'm thinking of starting an exchange program. Let's just divide up. Shirts and skins.

So here is the Cliven Bundy update

1)Authorities call bullshit on Bundy's land claims.

2)Militia members threaten members of the community.

3)Civil war is threatened between Bundy supporters.

4)Authorities prepare for charges to be filed against all involved.

5)Violence spreads to Utah

If we can summarize what’s happened since the spotlight moved on, we see the ongoing spread of lies and violence on the one hand — which is completely unsurprising. The almost-shooting war that Bundy supporters got themselves into is precisely the reason that the Second Amendment doesn’t mean what they think it means: As John Locke’s social contract theory explained, civil society was created because individual force cannot guarantee peace and security — even among the supposedly like-minded. Hence, the turning of violence against one another was just as predictable as its threatened spread to Utah as well.

On the other hand, we see a deliberately restrained, but methodical law enforcement process underway. Let’s hope it stays that way, because nothing damages the law as badly as those who abuse its authority, or use it recklessly. But let’s also hope they don’t take too long in beginning to bring folks to justice. Hatred, lies and violence already have too big a head start. We don’t need to let them get any further ahead.

Nearly forgot to mention that, apparently, fighting the tyranny that is Barack Obama's federal government doesn't pay anything. I mean, Bundy is not paying his grazing fees why would he pay these yahoos. So, if anyone passing through here would like to slip a few bucks in the tip jar of these domestic terrorists...

The life of an ever-vigilant anti-government armed patriot is hard. And by hard, I mean dull and unproductive. Also, not very profitable. Maybe that's why all those guys hanging out cleaning their guns in Nevada are now begging hard-working Americans to please give them some money.

I would, but I already gave to SPLC.

UPDATE: Here's a posting I just came across that may help convince you to abandon your gun-laden environs and head for our Socialistic, regulated Mecca.

Myth #2: Guns don't kill people—people kill people. Fact-check: People with more guns tend to kill more people—with guns. The states with the highest gun ownership rates have a gun murder rate 114% higher than those with the lowest gun ownership rates. Also, gun death rates tend to be higher in states with higher rates of gun ownership. Gun death rates are generally lower in states with restrictions such as assault-weapons bans or safe-storage requirements. Update: A recent study looking at 30 years of homicide data in all 50 states found that for every one percent increase in a state's gun ownership rate, there is a nearly one percent increase in its firearm homicide rate.

ownership vs gun death 

The other nine myths are worth checking out as well.