| The Daily Show with Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Grand Theft Semi-Auto | ||||
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| The Daily Show with Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Grand Theft Semi-Auto - Coming for Your Guns | ||||
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When will this go too far? When will rational Republicans - there must be a few of them left, don't you think? - recognize that their party has been captured by complete lunatics? How long will they continue to support crazy people?
OK, OK, we've got a black president, not only elected once, in 2008, but recently re-elected to a second term. You just can't understand that. Yes, I get it. You're still living in the 1950s. Barack Obama was elected just like all our other presidents, but he has a dark skin. Scary, huh?
But is that really a reason to have hysterics? Permanently? For chrissake, this has gone on for four years now! Aren't you getting a little tired of the histrionics? Even Scarlett didn't have the vapors for this long!
Of course, this is what Fox 'News' and the NRA do. But aren't you getting a little tired of that? If you're a conservative, do you really want conservatism defined by the craziest people in America? Well, that's what you've got in the GOP these days.
I know, this is a lot like my post yesterday, which also included video clips from the Daily Show. But I'm repeating myself for the same reason Jon Stewart did, because it's topical and because these people have gone completely batshit crazy. Now, I never tire of that, but if you're a Republican, aren't you getting a little tired of it, after four years?
Rational people can certainly debate the effectiveness of various gun control policies. Rational people can debate the meaning and rationale of the Second Amendment, too. I blogged about one interpretation in December. Here's another (thanks to Jeff for the link):
What is ignored in the NRA’s arguments is that, at the time the U.S. Constitution was written, the militia in the south was known by another name: the slave patrol, and virtually all men of age served in its ranks at one point or another. ...
With the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, there was concern among slave holders that their militias, their slave patrols, would be usurped by the new federal government using the provisions outlined in Article 1, Section 8. ...
In other words, the U.S. Congress could disarm the patrols needed to keep slaves in line, eliminating slavery with one bold and quick move overnight. The 2nd Amendment itself was purposefully designed to empower the states to manage and handle their slave patrols, their militias. Which is why when Thomas Jefferson had James Madison draft up the 2nd Amendment, he had the language changed, from this:
The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; a well armed, and well regulated militia being the best security of a free country: but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms, shall be compelled to render military service in person.
To the language we know today:
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. [Source]
A serious redesign, would you not say? The focus shift from a civil, non-conscripted force to a state-regulated entity which can be conscripted into service fit the needs of the slave holders. In a stroke of irony, when Abraham Lincoln did free the slaves, he used the very power which Patrick Henry and George Mason feared the government would, only at that time, by the Confederate states acting in revolt, they had abandoned their voting positions within the United States and therefore were unable to block the legislation. Their petty revolt resulted in their institution of slavery being wiped away. It still was a bloody civil war, but their “right to bear arms” destroyed what they had hoped to preserve.
When people call themselves patriots, or say they’re standing for what the founding fathers stood for when it comes to the 2nd Amendment, they are, in fact, doing nothing of the sort.
There's good reason to think that today's gun nuts have it wrong, that the meaning of the Second Amendment is exactly the opposite from the way they interpret it. Wealthy white property-owners - not just those with slaves - weren't encouraging armed revolt, but just the reverse.
These "well regulated militias" were supposed to protect our country, not from its own government, but from the rabble. Our Founding Fathers were not anarchists - just the reverse in fact.
As I say, rational people can disagree,... but where are the rational people in the Republican Party? Where are the rational people in the NRA? Where are the rational people at Fox 'News' or on talk radio?
I don't get tired of making fun of crazy people, but don't you get tired of being represented by them?
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PS. Yes, Stephen Colbert made fun of them, too:
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Obama's Gun Grab | ||||
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| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| The Word - United We Standoff | ||||
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"And it's because I respect our troops so much, that I need a semi-automatic assault rifle with a hundred round magazine to kill them when they come for my guns. (F**k you for your service)"
That sounds as patriotic as secession, doesn't it? :)
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