I Didn't Say It ... The Las Vegas Shootings: A Country Singer, Six Talk Show Hosts and One Asshat Speak

Jason Aldean, performing onstage in Vegas when the shooting broke out, reflecting on the state of America:

“Over the last 24 hrs I have gone through lots of emotions. Fear, Anger, Heartache, Compassion and many others. I truly don’t understand why a person would want to take the life of another. Something has changed in this country and in this world lately that is scary to see. This world is becoming the kind of place i am afraid to raise my children in. At the end of the day we aren’t Democrats or Republicans, Whites or Blacks, Men or Women. We are all humans and we are all Americans and its time to start acting like it and stand together as ONE! That is the only way we will ever get this Country to be better than it has ever been, but we have a long way to go and we have to start now. My heart aches for the Victims and their families of this Senseless act. I am so sorry for the hurt and pain everyone is feeling right now and there are no words i can say to take that pain away. Just know you all are in my heart and my prayers as we all go through this together. Time to come together and stop the hate!”

Stop the hate.

And stop the lunatics in Congress, suckling at the teat of the NRA, by voting them out of office.

If you don’t do that then you don’t care about gun deaths in America.

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Jimmy Kimmel, on the shooting in Las Vegas—his hometown:

“Here we are again, in the aftermath of another terrible, inexplicably shocking and painful tragedy … And, of course, we pray for the victims, and for their families and friends and we wonder ‘why.’ And, as a result of that this morning, we have children are without parents and fathers are without sons, mothers without daughters. We lost two police officers, we lost a nurse from Tennessee, a special ed teacher from a local school here in Manhattan Beach. It’s the kind of thing that it makes you want to throw up or give up. It’s too much to process all these devastated families who now have to live with this pain forever because one person with a violent and insane voice in his head managed to stockpile a collection of high-powered rifles. And use them to shoot people ... Of course, there was something we can do about it. There are a lot of things we can do about it. But we don’t. Which is interesting, because when someone with a beard attacks us, we tap phones, we invoke travel bans, we build walls. We take every possible precaution to make sure it doesn’t happen again. But when an American buys a gun and kills other Americans, then there’s nothing we can do about that. Because the Second Amendment. Our forefathers wanted us to have AK47s, is the argument ... We’ll pray for Las Vegas, some of us will get motivated, some of us won’t get motivated, bills will be written, bills will be watered down, bills will fail, the NRA will smother it all with money, and, over time, we’ll get distracted and move on to the next thing. And then it’ll happen again, and again….Senator Majority leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, and a number of other lawmakers – who won’t do anything about this because the NRA has their balls in a money clip – also sent their thoughts and prayers today…So, with all due respect: Your thoughts and your prayers are insufficient…By the way, the House of Representatives will be voting on a piece of legislation this week. It’s a bill to legalize the sale of silencers. For guns. This is what they’re working on.”

Word. So, since Congress won’t do anything it’s up to We The People

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Stephen Colbert, not accepting gun violence as “new normal”:

“This afternoon the president called [the mass shooting] an act of pure evil. And I think he’s right … So what then are we willing to do to combat pure evil? … Now, President _____, you said you want to be a transformative president, who doesn’t care about the way things have always been done in Washington D.C….This is your chance to prove it. And I mean this sincerely. You do not owe the Republicans anything. You know the Republicans tried to stop you from being president. Well, screw ‘em!”

Look, _____ won’t do anything because gun-toting-Bible-thumping loons are his base.

Aagin, We The People have got to do this.

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Conan O’Brien, on yet another mass shooting in America:

“Now, today, when I came into work, my head writer was standing in my office with a sheaf of papers. And he said, ‘Here are the remarks you made after the Sandy Hook shootings and the Pulse nightclub attacks in Orlando. You might want to look at them to see what you might want to say tonight.’ And that, that struck me. How could there be a file of mass shooting remarks for a late night host? When did that become normal? When did this become a ritual? And what does it say about us that it has? “Now I am not the most political of our comics. I never have been. But I will repeat what I said not long ago after Orlando. I don’t think it should be so easy for one demented person to kill so many people so quickly. The sounds of those automatic weapons last night are grotesquely out of place in a civilized society. It makes no sense to me, as a reasonable human being and a father. And what’s more, we’re all tired of hearing reporters—let alone comics—discuss mass carnage in the most affluent and influential country in the history of the world. Something needs to change. It really does.”

People say comics shouldn’t discuss such things but that’s just sweeping all those dead bodies under a rug and then putting the couch over it.

That needs to stop.

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Seth Meyers, asking Congress to admit they’ll do nothing about the gun violence and be honest:

“It always seems like the worst displays of humanity in this country are immediately followed by the best. And then sadly that is followed by no action at all and then it repeats itself. Are there no steps we can take to prevent gun violence or is this just how it is and how it’s going to continue to be? Because when you say, which you always say, ‘Now it’s not the time to talk about it,’ what you really mean is ‘There is never a time to talk about it. And it would be such more honest if you would just admit is that your plan is to never talk about it and never take any action. Is that the best plan D.C. has to prevent gun violence? When there’s a shooting, we just pray for a miracle? Because maybe that is it. But if you’re not willing to do anything, just be honest and tell us, ‘This is how it is, this is how it will continue to be.’”

Thoughts and prayers have never stopped bullets from flying.

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James Corden, speaking as a newcomer to America:

“Last night was the biggest mass shooting in United States history. That’s a record that’s been set twice since the two-and-a-half years that I’ve been living in America ... Now I come from a place where we don’t have shootings at this frequency so it’s hard for me to fathom, but it should be hard for everyone to fathom. Gun violence should not be a staple of American life. Some say it’s too early to talk about gun control. For those victims last night, it’s far too late … Forgive me, as I’m just a foreigner here and some of you may feel I have no place to say this, but how does every other developed country do a better job of preventing these attacks? We can’t be surprised that gun crime will always occur when there is such wide availability of guns.”

You have a right to say what you want; we all do. But, for those of us who live here anbd vote we need to speak at the ballot box and vote the NRA-ass-kissers out of office.

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Trevor Noah, on “thoughts and prayers” and inaction:

“What’s been particularly heartbreaking is other than the lives lost, is how I feel like people are becoming more accustomed to this type of news, every single time. I almost know how it’s going to play out. We’re shocked. We’re sad. Thoughts and prayers. Then, almost on cue, people are going to come out saying, ‘Whenever you do, when speaking about the shootings, don’t talk about guns.’ This is not the time to be talking about guns? … And also, if you say after a mass shooting is never the time, then you’ll never have the conversation, because there’s a mass shooting in America almost every single day. So when is the time? “We seem to do everything to avoid talking about guns. I’ve never been to a country where people are as afraid to speak about guns. Every time there’s a shooting, you gotta look at something else. Is it Muslims? Is it their religion, is that what it is? Is it blacks? It’s the blacks. It’s the black-on-black crime. Is it mentally ill people? Is it white nationalists? Every time, it’s a different question. And now, after this incident in Las Vegas, we’re asking a new question: Is it hotels? So just to keep track of the arguments: mass shooting, mass shooting, mass shooting, mass shooting, mass shooting, mass shooting — we have to take care of this hotel check-in issue.”

I saw on Twitter the other day a Tweet about nuclear weapons; and how nukes don’t kill people, people kill people.

Now, doesn’t that sound as dumbas guns don’t kill people?

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Bill O’Reilly, former Fox News host and sexual harasser, on the shooting:

“The murderer had a number of deadly weapons in his room and you can count on the gun control debate to ramp up. But having covered scores of gun-related crimes over the years, I can tell you that government restrictions will not stop psychopaths from harming people. They will find a way. Public safety demands logical gun laws but the issue is so polarizing and emotional that little will be accomplished as there is no common ground. The NRA and its supporters want easy access to weapons, while the left wants them banned. This is the price of freedom. Violent nuts are allowed to roam free until they do damage, no matter how threatening they are. The Second Amendment is clear that Americans have a right to arm themselves for protection. Even the loons.”

Wait. So, because we have freedoms we should understand that one of our freedoms is the right to be shot dead in the street? Bill, you are the dumbest fuck of all dumb-fucks.

And the left doesn’t want guns banned; I haven’t heard one politician on the left demand a ban; we want sensible gun control while the NRA and the GOP want anyone and everyone to have access to as many guns as they want.

Siddown you fucking has-been, your opinions are useless and unwanted.

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Random Musings

Carlos eyes are not getting better, though we knew that was the case. We saw a doctor in Charleston last month and he told her he was thinking of starting to use a white cane because ... and this is just one more reason I love him ... then people would see him coming, get out of his way, and he’d feel less nervous being in strange places. Even the doctor said that was a wise way to look at it.

So, about a week later, his cane arrived in the mail; he only uses it when he’s in places he’s unfamiliar with, and just so that people see him coming and adjust accordingly and he can focus on looking ahead instead of looking down; the cane does the “looking down” for him.

Now, that said, at a staff meeting at his job this past week, his boss asked him to tell the office about his eye condition—Retinitis Pigmentosa—and to explain that he might be using the cane on occasion and this is what he said:

“I have RP, which a person gets when they have sex under a Black Moon.”

Luckily most people laughed but a few—and remember we’re in South Carolina—laughed nervously.

But it broke the ice and several people then talked with him about the cane and if he ever needed anything ... all in all, except for the Black Moon Sex, it was a good thing.

Remember last spring when House Majority Whip, and Republican, Steve Scalise was shot while playing baseball by some lunatic with a gun?

Well, Scalise returned to Congress just a few days before the mass shooting in Las Vegas and he says this latest shooting—which left 59 dead and over 500 injured—has only reconfirmed his opposition to gun control.

Yes, he was shot by a deranged man with a gun and then watched the events in Las Vegas and still doesn’t think we need any form of gun control.

Asshat.

UPDATE ... Last month I posted the story of Family Values Conservative Republican Tim Murphy’s adulterous affair proving he’s a lying hypocritical pig, and now, well, it’s worse.

It appears now that pro-life asshat Tim Murphy urged the woman with whom he was having that affair to abort her pregnancy during what turned out to be an “unfounded pregnancy scare” in January.

And on the very same day this story broke lying hypocritical pig Tim Murphy voted for legislation that would ban abortion after 20 weeks.

He’s pro-life when it comes to you but pro-abortion when it comes to his mistress being knocked up. And now, Murphy—from Pennsylvania—has announced he will not seek re-election when his current term is up:

"After discussions with my family and staff, I have come to the decision that I will not seek reelection to Congress at the end of my current term. In the coming weeks I will take personal time to seek help as my family and I continue to work through our personal difficulties and seek healing. I ask you to respect our privacy during this time."

Personal difficulties? While married you began an affair with a married woman and then asked her to have an abortion and you want to play this off like you have some difficult issues?

The only difficulty you have is being a lying cheating adulterous hypocritical pig.

I need some Hot Men to calm me down ... or heat me up ... so without further ado, the Men of Liar ... the story of a well-respected doctor who goes on a date with a teacher and then she reports that he raped her.

Ioan Griffudd plays the ALLEGED rapist, Dr. Andrew Earlham, while Richie Campbell is Liam Sutcliffe, the ALLEGED victim’s brother-in-law, with Warren Brown as Tom Bailey, the ALLEGED victim’s boyfriend.

One show, triple the Eye Candy.

UPDATE ... this past week I posted about _____’s DOJ getting involved in a case about a gay man being fired for being gay and coming down on the side of the employer ... meaning the _____ Administration is fine with gay folks being fired for being gay.

Well, it looks like the DOJ got smacked down somewhat by the court after EEOC attorney Jeremy D. Horowitz explained why “sexual orientation cannot be separated from sex”:

1. The “but-for” theory ... argues that anti-gay discrimination qualifies as sex discrimination because, but for the gay person’s sex, he would not suffer discrimination.

2. The sex stereotyping theory ... SCOTUS ruled that sex stereotyping—punishing a worker for her failure to conform to gender norms—is a kind of sex discrimination. At first, courts only applied sex stereotyping to masculine women and feminine men, but the Seventh Circuit Court explained that gay people are “the ultimate case of failure to conform” to sex stereotypes, since men and women are typically expected to date only individuals of the opposite sex.

3. The associational sex discrimination theory ... holds that anti-gay bias constitutes sex discrimination much like anti-miscegenation laws constituted race discrimination.

That set up Assistant Attorney General Hashim Mooppan—arguing to legalize discrimination—to make his case ... which did not go well.

Chief Judge Katzmann wanted to know why the DOJ didn’t defer to the EEOC on Title VII, as it almost always does and Mooppan said it was because the DOJ was the nation’s “largest employer” and had an interest in retaining its capacity to fire gay people for being gay. Then as Judge Katzmann began asking more questions about interactions between the EEOC and the DOJ Mooppan declined to answer, basically Pleading the Fifth, which did not sit well with the court.

It was a terrible start for Mooppan, and it only went downhill from there because, as he explained: sex discrimination must always involve a belief that one sex is inferior to the other. Anti-gay discrimination does not rest on such a belief, and so it is not sex discrimination.

That theory is ridiculous for a few reasons, though, as the court pointed out, the most obvious one is that decades of case law disprove it. The Supreme Court has never held that an employer must express animus toward one sex in order to violate Title VII but need only take sex into account in any adverse employment action to run afoul of the law.

Judge Jacobs asked Mooppan whether he can refute the EEOC’s associational discrimination theory and its parallel to interracial and interfaith marriage, and Mooppan responded:

“When you discriminate against interracial marriage, you are promoting racial superiority. When you discriminate against interfaith marriage, you are promoting religious superiority. That makes the comparison to homosexuality moot.”

Except, to the judges it seemed to make the EEOC’s stance true that the DOJ was peddling a “radical reinterpretation of Title VII.”

The arguments concluded, but because of Mooppan’s refusal to answer certain questions, and the fact that his own arguments seemed to support the other side, it looks like the court might rule in favor of the EEOC and disallow the idea that it’s perfectly acceptable to fire someone for being gay.

Fingers crossed; we may have dodged a bullet.

This week, two weeks after the hurricane, _____ finally went to Puerto Rico and wasted no time in congratulating himself and putting down the people of Puerto Rico and saying the island should be “very proud” of its low official death count:

“Every death is a horror, but if you look at a real catastrophe like Katrina, and you look at the tremendous hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people that died and you look at what happened here with a story that was just totally overpowering.”

And then he downplayed how dire things are in Puerto Rico, where more than half of the people don’t have power, running water, or cellphone service two weeks after Hurricane Maria

“What is your death count?” Trump asked Puerto Rican governor, Ricardo Rossello. “Sixteen, certified” he replied. “Sixteen people certified. Sixteen people versus in the thousands,” he said, comparing it to Katrina.

And, since most of those are brown-skinned people who speak Spanish and therefore didn’t vote for _____ what’s the big deal?

Oh,. And let’s not forget that he told an island filled with people asking for help with the basic necessities of life that Puerto Rico has “thrown our budget a little out of whack.”

Says the man who costs this country millions of dollars so he can haul his fat white lazy ass to the gold course every weekend.

In Good News ... this week the US Census Bureau reversed a previous decision to exclude a question on sexual orientation from the Census after many in the LGBT community demanded to be included; Rea Carey, Executive Director of the National LGBTQ Task Force, issued the following statement:

“Make no mistake—public pressure on the _____ Administration works. It was messages from the members of the National LGBTQ Task Force and our partner organizations that compelled the Census Bureau to reverse their appalling decision to stop counting us.”

Resist, and you will see change.

Last week the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva voted to condemn “horrific laws” that condemn people to death because of their sexual orientation; 27 nations voted in favor of condemning the resolution; 7 nations abstained; 13 nations voted against condemning.

The thirteen who voted against the resolution?

Bangladesh, Botswana, Burundi, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Iraq, Japan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates ...

... and the United States of America.

Yes, we did. We voted not to condemn countries that give gay people death for being gay.

Carlos has been fighting a cold this week so I am the cook. I cooked dinner last Friday, Saturday, Sunday—I made Chicken Soup for his cold—and Monday. On Tuesday he said he’d cook and then he ... wait for it ... microwaved the pasta sauce that I made the day before and reheated some leftover pasta, too, and called it dinner.

When we sat down to hit, he said, sarcastically, to me:

“Uh, thanks for dinner?”

To which I sarcastically replied:

“Uh, when you microwave pasta sauce and reheat yesterday’s noodles, that is not cooking. Thank you’s are not necessary; but if they were, you could thank me for making the sauce and noodles that you could simply warm up.”

I’m lucky not to have ended up with a face full of marinara!

Man how shocking was it to hear that Tom Petty died this week at 66? I mean, I saw him, and the Heartbreakers, in concert several times and it was always a great show.

Petty suffered a heart attack last Sunday night and then passed away later at UCLA Santa Monica Hospital. He had just ended a tour celebrating the band’s fortieth anniversary with three sold-out shows at the Hollywood Bowl.

I guess he wanted to go out on a high note.

RIP Tom; thanks for all the music, and enjoy The Great Wide Open.

Architecture Wednesday: Tower House

This is the home e of sculptor Jacek Jarnuszkiewicz, who worked closely with architects Marie-Claude Hamelin and Loukas Yiacouvakis to realize his vision. The tower is located on a parcel of land overhanging lake Trousers, and is surrounded by a chiaroscuro coniferous forest.

Jarnuszkiewicz conceived the idea of each designer building upon the work done by the previous one. Each idea debated among the artist and architects until verticality—necessitated by the landscape—was agreed upon as the core concept of the project, from volume to plan, from the handling of materials and masses to the upgrowth of interior spaces.

The open plan offers a natural fluidity and continuity between the forest’s ground level and the lower floor of the house, between interior and exterior. The mezzanine lounge on the last floor is completed by a large covered terrace that is both a wildlife observation tower and a nature viewing gallery. It opens itself to the mountains and overlooks the nearby lake.

The tower design was chosen because it mimics the verticality of the mature trees surrounding it, and as the house rises, it opens itself to daylight and the scenery.

It’s the perfect house for a sculptor.

HomeDSGN

Just A Thought ...

Just A Thought ...

Screw Your 'Thoughts and Prayers' ... They're Meaningless

After the events yesterday in Las Vegas—a polite way of saying after the terrorist attack on concert-goers where nearly six hundred people  were killed or wounded—I was on social media reading the reports and one thing I noticed that really, really pissed me off: prayers for Las Vegas.

Prayers? Really? Or, for those who might not pray, or be part of any organized religious cult, “thoughts.” Prayers and thoughts.

Are prayers and thoughts going to bring back the 58 dead in Vegas? Heal the 500-plus victims? I mean, what a nice gesture right? Prayers and thoughts. But what good are they, those, in my opinion, meaningless words.

Did your prayers and thoughts stop gun violence after the shooting at Columbine High School in 1999?

Howsabout all those prayers for the twelve people shot dead in that Aurora, Colorado movie theater in 2012? How’d your prayers work out then?

And what about Pulse nightclub, just last year, when 49 people were killed? Did the prayers help?

At Virginia Tech in 2007 when 32 people were murdered? At Sandy Hook in 2012 when 26 adults and children were gunned down? How’d those prayers do then? And what about the Charleston shooting that left nine people dead?

San Bernardino; Fort Hood; Killeen,Texas; San Bernardino; Binghamton, New York; Washington Navy Yard; San Ysidro, California; Austin, Texas; Edmond, Oklahoma; Lawrence, Kansas; Memphis; New Orleans.

Need more ... go HERE and see the list of the 1700 people killed, 6,000 people wounded by gun violence in this country alone. That’s a lot of praying and what good has it done?

Oh, it makes you feel better? Really? Praying makes you feel better, but it does nothing for the victims and does nothing for common sense gun control in this country. It did nothing to stop the Las Vegas shooter from purchasing forty-two weapons ... not to mention the bomb-making materials.

Look, you want a gun? Good for you, but do not even try to make sense of someone who has amassed a personal arsenal of over forty weapons; there is absolutely no need for that unless ... yeah, mass shooter. So your thoughts and prayers won’t help.

You know what works better than prayers and thoughts? Calling your Congressional Representatives and the House and Senate and demanding that they do something, and then, if they don’t, vote them out of office because every time there is a mass shooting in this country—and there’s one on average of every nine days—and you just pray, you might as well be holding a gun yourself because you are doing nothing to stop this mess.

I mean, as the bodies were piling up in Las Vegas yesterday the White House actually said “Now is not the time to talk gun control.” Really? When is the time? In a few days when _____ Tweets something about an actress he doesn’t like or a football on his knee, or ignores hurricane victims or plays golf or threatens nuclear war and we forget all about Las Vegas? Is that the time?

No, the time is now, because your thoughts and prayers don’ work; they’re meaningless. They’re a way for you to feel better about 600 people being shot.

Six hundred people wounded or dead and all you got are prayers and good thoughts.

How’s that working out for you?

_____'s DOJ Argues That It's Legal To Fire Employees For Being Gay

We’ve seen the _____ Administration come for Mexicans, we’ve seen them come for Muslims, we’ve seen then come for women’s rights, and we wondered when they might come for us; the answer is, now.

In arguments before the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals last week lawyers for the _____ administration argued that discrimination against gay workers is legal.

Yes, it’s true; the Department of Justice [DOJ] and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission [EEOC] are facing off against each other in Zarda v. Altitude Express, Inc., a case concerning a man fired from his job because he is gay.

This is the case: Donald Zarda, a skydiving instructor was fired for being gay in 2010. As part of his job, Zarda had to tether himself tightly to a female client for a tandem jump, and when she told him she felt uncomfortable, he confided in her that he was gay.’

The school fired Zarda after the client’s boyfriend complained. Zarda died several years ago in a skydiving accident, and his partner Bill Moore is pursuing the case.

The en banc hearing—meaning the case will be heard by the full 2nd Circuit court—is a rare thing, but is also a strong indication of the case’s significance. The court is set to reconsider a 17-year-old legal precedent stating that employment discrimination based on sexual orientation is not prohibited under federal law.

Justice Department attorney Hashim Mooppan argued that judges must interpret laws based on lawmakers’ “intent” and he says Congress didn’t have the LGBT community in mind when it crafted Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, so firing someone because they’re gay is just fine. And, you know, because being gay is a sin, Mooppan compared the situation  to an employer firing a worker for having an affair or being promiscuous; Mooppan believes that, under federal law, employers are free to “regulate employees’ off-the-job sexual behavior,” meaning they could discriminate against employees for adultery, promiscuity or sexual orientation.

Doesn’t it seem rather clear cut? I mean, from what we all know, cheating on your spouse, or being sexually promiscuous are choices, being gay is not And don’t get me started on your boss firing you because you cheated on your spouse; since when does an employer have a right to fire someone for their, ahem, extracurricular activities, if they don’t impede on job performance, or if they aren’t cheating with a fellow employee? I mean, if it’s going to be legal to fire adulterers or promiscuous men and women, get ready for a boom in unemployed Americans.

Still, even though anti-gay activists may have taken control of the DOJ, they seem unlikely to persuade the court that America’s gay employees don’t deserve civil rights. But just think of that: the _____ Administration is arguing that gay people can be fired just for being gay ... it’s like being fired because you have blue eyes, or brown skin ... you’re going to be fired for being yourself.

Earlier this year, an appeals court in Chicago ruled that Title VII prohibited discrimination against LGBT people in a case that involved a lesbian teacher from Indiana, and several weeks before that, a panel of judges in Atlanta came to the opposite conclusion regarding Title VII.

Clearly, the LGBT community is still not equal under the law, when the same rules can be twisted to say you can’t be fired, or you can be fired, for being gay.

The march goes on ... sigh.

Just A Thought ....

The Funny Papers

Drew Sheneman, Nick Anderson, David Fitzsimmons, RJ Matson, Jim Morin, Mike Luckovich, Pat Bagley, Jack Ohman, Bill Day, Clay Bennett