Planet America

[Meadmaker]

I have a new theory about what's wrong with our country. Everyone takes themselves too damned seriously, and overestimates their own significance.


I saw in the news today that the Audobon Society is going to rename dozens of bird names that have racist backgrounds. I think that means that whoever discovered or first recorded the birds sometimes got their names tacked onto them. Like, there's a rare bird around here name "Kirtland's Warbler". It was probably discovered by some dude name Kirtland.

Well.....maybe Kirtland was a racist. Maybe even a slave owner, or a Confederate soldier or something? Did you ever think about that? Huh? Huh?

Such injustice must end right now! That's the key to peace and harmony in the USA. Let's fix this immediately.


I immediately thought of this (Monty Python)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxlZ4i3VjXY


(ETA: I did a bit of googling. It turns out Audobon himself was quite the racist. Go figure. I wonder if anyone else born in 1785 was racist. However, the Audobon Society has declined to rename itself, at least recently. It's just the birds for now.)

ETA2: I guess it was the American Ornithological Society, not the Audobon Society. The Audobon Society was mentioned in the article, related to them deciding to keep their name.)

[Admin]

I have a new theory about what's wrong with our country. Everyone takes themselves too damned seriously, and overestimates their own significance.

It's not just America, it's just that America has all the money and weapons.

[President Bush]

Jesus fucking Christ.

Are your lawmakers all clinically insane?

‘I refuse to put people over politics’
-Speaker of the House Mike Johnson

https://twitter.com/SollenbergerRC/stat ... 0123248823

Nice Freudian slip from a fund raising email.

[grayman]

Jesus fucking Christ.

Are your lawmakers all clinically insane?

‘I refuse to put people over politics’
-Speaker of the House Mike Johnson

https://twitter.com/SollenbergerRC/stat ... 0123248823

Nice Freudian slip from a fund raising email.

Two steps away from being "Leader of the Free World":


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTgVYzbiSvY

[sparks]

Fuck.

[President Bush]

This is not The Onion:

The Supreme Court hears arguments Tuesday in a case that could invalidate the federal law barring guns for anyone who is the subject of a domestic violence court order. If the federal law falls, so would similar laws in most states, and other important gun laws.

...

Sixteen months ago, the conservative court majority broke sharply with the way gun laws had been handled by the courts in the past. In a landmark decision, the six-justice majority ruled that in order to be constitutional, a gun law has to be analogous to a law that existed at the nation's founding in the late 1700s.

Since then, Second Amendment advocates have brought all manner of challenges to state and federal gun laws across the country, plunging the lower courts into conflicting conclusions about how precise the analog has to be. Tuesday's case is the first to test of how far the conservative court wants to go, and how precise the analog has to be. At issue is the federal law that makes it a crime for anyone subject to a domestic violence court order to possess a gun.

The defendant in the case, Zackey Rahimi, is something of a poster child for why Congress passed the law in 1994. In 2019 he assaulted his girlfriend in a parking lot, and after realizing that a bystander saw the assault, he fired a gun at the witness, and threatened to shoot his girlfriend if she told anyone. Two months later, a Texas court granted her a protective order, suspended Rahimi's gun license, and warned him that possession of a gun while the order remained in effect is a federal felony.

Rahimi repeatedly violated the court order, threatened another woman with a gun and fired a gun in five different locations in a period of one month—incidents that ranged from shooting a gun repeatedly at another driver after a collision, to firing multiple shots in the air after a fast-food restaurant declined a friend's credit card. When police searched his residence, they found a pistol, a rifle, magazines, ammunition, and a copy of the protective order.

He pleaded guilty to charges of violating the federal gun law and was sentenced to six years in prison. But he continued to press his constitutional challenge, and ultimately the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the law is unconstitutional because there was nothing like it in the 1790s.

https://www.npr.org/2023/11/07/12085013 ... ic-abusers

[Admin]

Fun times at SCOTUS, they've also agreed to hear the case against the bump-stock ban.

I ran across another couple of truly American stories today, but they're too fucking depressing to even begin to discuss.

I think the only remaining answer is sparky's nuke it from orbit to be sure. We'll give you guys warning to get out beforehand, but if you can arrange for the insane 2/3 to be at home when it happens I think we can fix it.

[grayman]

Sad.

When authorities arrived, Hernandez was found dead with a gunshot wound to his upper body after Roy tried to “dry fire” or “simulate the discharge of a firearm by pulling the trigger,” preliminary details from detectives reveal.

“Roy unintentionally shot the firearm he believed to be unloaded, fatally striking Hernandez,” police said. “Alcohol is believed to be a factor in the shooting.”

https://www.cnn.com/us-park-police-shoo ... appearance

[Admin]

Sounds about right.

I want to get all the nutbar gun owners to agree to play Russian Roulette before buying a gun.

With a semi-automatic.

[arthwollipot]

Guns and booze. What could possibly go wrong?