As long as the gun rights fanatics won’t negotiate, the killings will go on

NCCI Holdings, a company involved in workplace data, just released a new report on workplace violence.  According to the U.S. Dept. of Labor, nearly 2 million American workers each year report that they have been involved in some kind of violence where they work, which includes threats, physical assaults and homicides.  The Bureau of Labor Statistic says 11 percent of those incidents were homicides, the fourth-leading cause of occupational injuries.

An important NCCI finding which has not been played up by the media is the fact that 80 percent of workplace homicides were caused by guns, compared to 10 percent by stabbings.  This report was released just two days before the Tucson massacre where a mentally ill gunman injured U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords, also injuring 14 others and killing six.  No particular connection to the workplace but an example of loose gun laws that allow a deranged gunman to buy a weapon.

The National Rifle Assn. (NRA) is even for keeping guns out of the hands of individuals trying to purchase a firearm but they aren’t championing the cause.  They are afraid that it will show weakness and their message is one of fear (that someone will take their guns away) rather than negotiation on things like background checks, the gun show loophole and concealed weapons laws.  So they whip their membership into a frenzy to deny anything that smacks of sane gun control.



A recent post I did on the issue, “New York’s strong gun laws make state safer than weaker states of Arizona and Texas,” brought me a conglomeration of comments from these NRA trained fanatics.  Some of their points are worth considering because there are always two sides to every argument.  Many are just very inane and an affront to any intelligent human being.  But not once does either group admit there are major problems with our gun laws like a lack of background checks, the gun show loophole and concealed carry.

There was a recent article by Leonard Pitts, Jr., Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the Miami Herald that blames firearms for much of the political change in this country.  Like the fact that Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords was forced to leave Congress due to the reckless use of an easily available handgun. 

He recounts past instances in our history with similar outcomes like the assassinations of Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, Huey Long, Malcolm X, Medgar Evers, the Kennedy brothers, George Wallace, Martin Luther King and others.



Glock 19



Citing Jared Loughner’s easy access to the semi-automatic Glock 19 he purchased at the Sportsman’s Warehouse outlet in Tucson, Arizona, Pitts exclaims that Loughner was able to acquire the gun despite the fact that he had been rejected by the U.S. Army and kicked out of a community college due to his behavior.  Pitts continues this line of thought with, “Which suggests that, while Loughner may be unbalanced, American gun laws are downright insane.”  I couldn’t have said it better.

Pitts also has an opinion on the refusal of the gun lobby to allow the banning of automatic high-capacity magazines: “The hunter who needs a gun that fires hundreds of rounds a minute isn’t much of a hunter.”  Amen!  And he even cites the political left for its crusade to get rid of all guns instead of concentrating on the specific issues of just making it harder for the bad guys to obtain them.  Just like the political right led by the NRA won’t give an inch.

Yes, the killings will go on if we don’t find some means for conciliation, and that includes both sides of the issue.  Pitts comments that this whole fiasco reflects the will of the people and that is tragic because they are the ones getting killed.

Animal abusers should be required to register like sex offenders

Animal abusers are the bottom of the barrel just like sex offenders.  Both take advantage of the innocent who trust us to love them and provide a secure place for them to live.  Not take advantage of them, in some cases actually causing harm, even death.  Maryland may well be the first state to launch such a registry, if State Senator Ron Young has anything to do with it.  Young plans to introduce a bill that would require convicted animal abusers in Maryland to submit their information to a registry.

Abusers would be photographed, fingerprinted along with their address and would have to pay $50.00 per year to fund the registry.  They could be taken off the list if they are abuse-free for 10 years.  All the data would end up on a Web page run by the state.  Other states working on similar legislation are New York and Florida.  I am thinking more along the lines of a federal law that would make animal abuse a major offense, including what happens in puppy mills and backyard breeders. 



Typical puppy mill



64.5 percent of victims are dogs, 18 percent cats and 25 percent involve other animals.  Domestic violence seems to have an impact on animal abuse.  According to the Animal Humane Assn., 71% of pet-owning women entering women’s shelters reported that their batterer had injured, maimed, killed or threatened family pets for revenge or to psychologically control victims.  Abusers  even kill, harm, or threaten children’s pets to coerce them into sexual abuse or to force them to remain silent about abuse.

In one study, 70% of animal abusers also had records for other crimes.  And in case you didn’t know, more U.S. households have pets than children, which helps account for the number of animals that end up in shelters.  It is estimated by The Humane Society that 6 to 8 million cats and dogs enter animal shelters every year.  3 to 4 million are euthanized, 3 to 4 million are adopted out and some are rescued by their owners.  Many would say the abuse starts in normal homes where pets are allowed to run away or are deserted by owners.



The Humane Society has released its 2011 "Humane State Ranking," a comprehensive report rating all 50 states and DC on issues ranging from animal fighting to farm animals to wildlife to companion animals.  The results are interesting with California as number one with its laws compared to South Dakota which is last.  SD is one of only three states with no felony level penalties for egregious acts of cruelty, and also has some of the weakest laws against cock fighting in the country.

Unfortunately some individuals treat animal like their property and think they can do with them as they please, including maltreat and/or murder them.  Yes, it is murder and in many states in this country you are executed for it.  When you see what has happened to some of these loving little creatures, it makes you wonder if execution is too good for the abusers.

Support your local animal shelters!

New York’s strong gun laws make state safer than weaker states of Arizona and Texas

The gun nuts, especially in Arizona, will argue with you until they are blue in the face that because the state’s gun laws allow just about anyone to own a gun and carry it around concealed to just about anyplace they want, including bars, that the state is a safer place for it.  They would be wrong.  In a recent Wall Street Journal Letter to the Editor, Richard Reay of Riverdale, NY, made his point by using the 2010 FBI Violent Crime Statistics report.



NY Mayor Bloomberg for gun control



As an example, there are 408.1 violent crimes and 6.4 murders/manslaughters in Arizona per 100,000 population compared to 392.1 and 4.5 in New York.  In the same comparison, Texas is 450.3 and 5.0.  Reay’s letter was reacting to the typical inaccuracy of a gun freak who spews out whatever garbage the National Rifle Assn. (NRA) tells him to.  The guy, a Californian named Dave Culver, was ranting over the fact that the people of New York were less safe because they had been disarmed by their civic leaders.

To add to Culver’s misinformation, Reay tells us that gun-related robberies and aggravated assault in New York were around 20 percent and 25 percent that of Texas and Arizona, respectively.  (also in FBI Crime Statistics)  With the population growth of cities like Phoenix, Dallas and Houston, the density rate is adding to the problem, and when you give anyone in those metropolitan areas a handgun that asks for it, you are just asking for trouble.

If you want to check out gun laws by state, Wikipedia has excellent access to the data with facts on each facet of buying and carrying a handgun.  For example, New York requires a permit to purchase, the owner must register the weapon, assault weapons are not allowed and there is a limited conceal carry law; you cannot carry a gun into a bar or state offices or government buildings. 

AZ concealed permit no one needs

In direct contrast, Arizona requires no permit to purchase, registration is limited to federal laws, assault weapons are allowed, and anyone, literally anyone, can walk around with a concealed weapon.  Texas laws are very similar to Arizona but the latter stands out as the state with the most lax gun laws in the U.S.  In a ranking by The Daily Beast, Arizona ranked second in gun deaths per 100,000 pop., Texas 23 and New York 45.

The facts don’t lie and don’t talk to me about recent reports that overall crime is down in the U.S.  That would be right but there is still absolutely no excuse for even one murder due to a handgun being in the wrong hands, much less the recent massacres in Tucson and at Virginia Tech.  The above reports even came with the news that shootings—yes, that would require a gun—of law enforcement officials has increased for the second year in a row, 23 percent in 2011.

Common sense suggestions on gun control from Delaware Gov. Jack Markell below:

Paul Helmke, former Mayor of Ft. Wayne, Indiana and also a recent President of The Brady Campaign, exclaims that an astonishing 40 percent of guns are purchased without a background check.  To illustrate this, the state of Indiana does not require documentation to either sell or buy firearms.  On the other hand, California is ranked number one for its universal background check system, dealer regulations and assault clip ban. 

And there is where we should start with more gun control.  Ban large capacity magazines like the ones used in Tucson and at Va. Tech.  Require a background check for every firearm purchase to stop mentally ill from getting them.  Close the gun show loophole where private dealers have to require little or no information to purchase a weapon.  By the way, Indiana is tied for 38^th according to the Brady Campaign when it comes to laws preventing gun violence.

With the above revelations, you would think that at least progressive congressional Democrats would get behind legislation for at least the three issues above.  And where has President Obama been on gun control since his election and his reaction to Gabby Giffords shooting?  The American public has also softened on gun control, that is until one of their own is taken from them.  Yes, hindsight can be a great thing but in this case, it is too late.

2 confirmed racists, one a neo-Nazi, run for high Arizona offices

It’s not enough that the valley of the Sun has its “affected” Gov. Jan Brewer, but now there are two other nutcases, one of them recently forced out of office, that aspire to help run the great state of Arizona.  And it is a great state.  Former Governor Carl Hayden once said, "I built this state. Don't let the GOP destroy it!”  Unfortunately, this statement turned into factual intuition on the part of the author.



Russell Pearce recall



Former state senator Russell Pearce, who is a Mormon and the first Arizona legislator ever recalled (last November), has been elected to the top Arizona GOP Party post of 1st Vice Chairman.  In the face of those folks who unanimously voted to oust Pearce from office, state Republicans decided he was fit to be in the party’s No. 2 leadership role, according to spokesman Shane Wikfors.  On Saturday, Wikfors commented, "I will tell you that the two biggest generators of applause at today's meeting was Russell and Sheriff Joe (Arpaio),"  Pathetic.

Democratic Party chairman Andrei Cherny said, "Arizona has moved past the divisive and corrosive politics of Russell Pearce -- but the Republican Party hasn't," sealing the fact that this pack of fruitcakes does not learn from experience.  There was a movie back in 1948 named The Snake Pit, which portrayed a woman who finds herself in an insane asylum.  I remember scenes from the film as a teenager at the time that depicted patients completely out of touch with reality constantly babbling incoherently.

Following is a must-see Russell Pearce video:

Bingo!  The GOP dominated Arizona state legislature.  These vipers have proceeded to pass laws and practice a type of political suicide that has made the state laughable, placing it at the top of the ‘Who do we ridicule today’ list.  The state’s five Republican congressmen attended the meeting, apparently placing their sign of approval on Pearce’s appointment. 

Russell Pearce was fired from Arizona Motor Vehicles in 1999 for allowing subordinates to tamper with a woman’s driving record.  In 1980 Pearce’s wife Luanne accused him of beating her and said she wanted a divorce.  His two sons have been accused of domestic violence, one, Josh, who allegedly fractured his daughter’s skull and sports a Nazi eagle tattoo on his neck/chest.  Sounds like the perfect Mormon family.

JT Ready 2nd from right

But an even better story is Russell Pearce chum, racist and neo-Nazi J.T. Ready running for Arizona’s Pinal County Sheriff…as a Democrat.  Once a registered Republican, Ready’s answer to why he switched was, "It's the party of Jim Crow, [late U.S. Senator and one-time KKK member] Robert Byrd, and [late Alabama Governor and one-time segregationist] George Wallace.  Exemplary company.  I once asked Ready if he was a member of the National Rifle Assn. (NRA) and he replied he was but behind on his dues.

However, it is Stephen Lemons Feathered Bastard column in the Phoenix New Times that captures the essence of J.T. Ready.  He supports legalizing marijuana and has referred to Adolph Hitler as a "great white civil rights leader."  He once was a member of the National Socialist Movement (NSM) and still marches with them.  As a one-time close buddy of Russell Pearce, Ready is known for his armed patrol in the Arizona desert looking for illegal immigrants.  His committee chairman is NSM member Harry Hughes, another neo-Nazi racist.



Dept of Justice boots Arpaio



And it wouldn’t be right not to give a nod to Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who is up for reelection in November.  When you talk about racism along with anti-immigration policies, Sheriff Joe ranks right up there at the top.  The U.S. Dept. of Justice has charged the Sheriff with human-rights violations and the Phoenix Human Relations Committee has just unanimously voted to ask Arpaio to step down. 

This basically completes the inner circle of Arizona’s notoriously best known bigots in politics.

Can Republican HATE politics bring this country down?

GOP Hate and Fear

Daily Kos posted a piece recently, “Why Does The GOP Hate (everything sane)?” that is the best I’ve seen for putting Republican hate-mongering in perspective with its biggest supporter, the Tea Party.  It said, “The GOP has such an easy task when it comes to adapting people's minds to vote for them; Spread hate and they will be yours…”  Sounds like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and the master, Karl Rove.  Also reminds me of George Orwell’s 1984 but more on that later.

I Googled “GOP hate” and “Republican hate” and was able to formulate a list of what some pretty influential sites and organizations think Republicans hate, as follows:

Taxes, the poor and hungry, gays, Hispanics, liberals, gun control, animal rights, the truth, women, even those pregnant, the Occupy Movement, Barack Obama, science (as in stem cell research), public education, environmentalism, veterans, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, teachers, unions, and, yes, even other Republicans (as in Newt Gingrich)

There are probably more that I have missed but this will get the ball rolling and I encourage you to add to the list with your comments. 



Norman Lear



Many of us—all but the very young—remember Norman Lear’s TV sitcom All in the Family, starring Carroll O’Connor as Archie Bunker and Jean Stapleton, Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers as the rest of the family.  Archie was a “nice” bigot and was constantly chastised by his son-in-law “Meathead” played by Rob Reiner.  Many thought this character was patterned after Lear who abhorred bigotry.  Because of its insightful humor the show lasted for nine years on CBS.

Lear was concerned over how the religious right could repeatedly disgorge sermons that reeked of politics so he, through his organization People for the American Way, complained to a Los Angeles television station about one of Pat Robertson’s TV program.  Robertson responded with a threat of God’s wrath against him.  Jerry Falwell told his followers, “I am about to name the man that some people believe to be the greatest threat to the American family in our generation: Norman Lear!"

Falwell’s “threat” comment garnered Lear hate mail and death threats, one so threatening that the TV producer had to get protection.  Since most of this religious pack are Republican, it is astonishing that their religion—if that’s what it really is—would allow them to do such a thing, although it is commonplace they would as a right-wing extremist, particularly Tea Partiers.  Lear’s position is that “Our founders clearly intended that there be a level of separation between church and state.”



And as promised, the Orwellian connection between hate and the Republican Party.  In 1984, Emmanuel Goldstein is the face of the “Two Minutes Hate” which the citizens of Oceania were subjected to on a regular basis.  They were whipped up into a tremendous frenzy to hate Goldstein and anything else that didn’t agree with the Party.  What Goldstein said made perfect sense in defying this extremely hellish atmosphere and no matter how much hatred was directed against him and his leftist beliefs, his influence never seemed to grow less.

Sound familiar?  George Orwell was a novelist and political writer who was well acquainted with social injustice in the world.  The proles of Oceania represent the poor and out of work people in the U.S. today who are completely ignored by the GOP in favor of supporting the wealthy and large corporations.  (See the poor and hungry and those on Medicaid in the list above.) 

The difference is, where Goldstein’s followers, above, could only look on in the “Two Minute Hate” but could not take action, the progressive movement has begun to rebut the Republican hate messages with responses of hope.  There is no hope in hate, and the American public is beginning to see through the GOP façade.  And to answer the original question, the answer is NO, the Republican HATE politics will not bring this country down.

If you haven’t already, please check out Norman Lear’s People for the

American Way

.

It’s Official: Arizona’s phony Governor Jan Brewer is a moron



Jan Brewer, Pres. Obama



I’m convinced, and probably most of the rest of the country as well, that Arizona’s laughable governor should register in the class of double-digit IQs.  This, after her recent finger-pointing incident at President Obama on the Mesa, AZ airport tarmac.  It’s like when this state turns Brewer loose on the public there is a guarantee that it will bring on another round of ridicule of a state that is already considered by most of the U.S. as preposterous, at least in its politics.

Yes, unfortunately, the world has seen the coverage of this twit excuse for the head of a state government gone viral in her finger-pointing at Obama that is a huge embarrassment to all.  And now this bungling politician has raised the ire of black activist Jesse Jackson who says her confrontation with Obama was racist.  Actually, I don’t think Brewer has the brains to pull off a genuine racist incident; rather, it was just a publicity stunt for her stupid book.  Other blacks like Al Sharpton and the NAACP have joined in with their own accusations.



Brewer Obama Oval Office



Brewer says it all comes down to something she said in her book about their prior meeting in the Oval Office that Obama said was inaccurate.  Leaving that meeting Brewer said she was encouraged describing it as a “successful” encounter.  But in the book she said: “It was [as] though President Obama thought he could lecture me, and I would learn at his knee.  “He thinks he can humor me and then get rid of me.”  As CNN’s John King said in the video below, you can’t have it both ways, which was it?



Pool reporter, Politico’s Carrie Budoff Brown said it certainly wasn’t a normal get-together in Mesa.  “Aside from the pointing, they appeared to talk over each other and he appeared to walk away from her while they were still talking.” Can you blame the man?  Brewer later described Obama as “thin skinned” and “tense,” which he denied.  Immediately following the incident the President moved on through the line of dignitaries being greeted very civilly by Phoenix’s Mayor Greg Stanton and Mesa’s Mayor Scott Smith. 

Mr. Obama made a comment that it was always good publicity for a Republican if they are in an argument with him.  This is based on the degeneration in the relations between the GOP and Obama in the past year.  This deterioration continued the minute Barack Obama stepped off the plane in Mesa and came face to face with Arizona’s version of the great Republican buffoon.  It couldn’t have been planned better if it had been staged by Hollywood.

Local Phoenix newspaper columnist E.J. Montini called Brewer’s behavior “embarrassingly juvenile” continuing to define respect due the highest office in the land as something that “…does not mean sandbagging a president who is about to provide a tremendous public-relations plug for your state.”  He went on to describe Brewer’s feeble-mindedness as third grade, then retracted that as an insult to 3^rd graders and downgraded it to kindergarten.

Bob Schieffer, highly respected CBS chief Washington correspondent said: “I've watched a lot of presidents over the years but I can never recall a president stepping off Air Force One, which is itself a symbol of the presidency and American democracy, and being subject to such rudeness,” referring to Brewer.

And Modern Magazine’s headline says it all, “The Sorry State of Jan Brewer.”  It goes on to call her “Gov. Jan ‘Brew-ha-ha’ Brewer” and laments how she has embarrassed just about anyone who has ever been remotely connected to the Grand Canyon state.

So who is to blame for this sham in the desert?  The people of Arizona.  Not only did they elect this incompetent crackpot entirely due to her support of the anti-immigration law SB-1070, but in a recent poll these same pathetic individuals said they still liked or sorta liked her and her dull-witted GOP dominated state legislature.  Brewer’s job performance came in at 37% excellent/good, 30% fair and 29% poor/very poor.  The legislature was 26%, 25% and 30% respectively.

And this post would not be complete without the reaction of the people in Letters to the Editor of the Arizona Republic.  Out of nine responses, only two favored Brewer in the finger-pointing incident.  The terms used were disgrace, negative impression of state, tasteless show of personal regard, shameful show of self-importance, embarrassment, despicable show by Brewer, and one asked where was that “13 seconds of dumb silence” she displayed in the gubernatorial debates? 

Where the hell were these people in the last election and when the above poll was taken? 

Jan Brewer will certainly go down as the worst governor Arizona has ever had—



Jan Brewer



and this state has had some doozies—perhaps the worst governor ever in the United States.  But Keith Olbermann, political commentator and writer, takes it even further with his evaluation that Jan Brewer is the “worst person in the world.”  You have to see his video here.         

George Orwell lives and so do his “1984” predictions

Geo. Orwell at typewriter

I was prompted to write this post because of another of those privacy naysayers who claims that, although identity theft, which results in the exposure of your most personal data, and which is the number one consumer problem for the Federal Trade Commission, we only have ourselves to blame for its loss.  Pete Cashmore, writing on CNN, says the fact that the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) was dumped proved George Orwell’s 1984 “woefully incorrect.”  He couldn’t be more wrong.

Agreed, there are those individuals out there—probably in the millions—that willingly give up their private information, mostly due to promises of certain conveniences that seem to these folks more important than protecting their personal data.  There is also a culture that has been expended by data gatherers that has convinced this same group that their information is safe.  It is not.  To support this theory, take a look at a recent NJ post that shows that in 2011 there were 419 breaches of private information exposing 22,918,441 personal records.

Watch a good synopsis of 1984 below:

One of the primary reasons I am so cynical over the security of your personal data is that the junk mail industry grosses over $4 billion annually from selling names and personal information with some placing profits over security.  My authority on this comes from being a junk mail data broker for 35 years.  I have seen the cracks in the damn and some of them still remain despite some efforts by this business to clean up its act.  And hackers may be around to haunt us forever.

Over the years I have written numerous articles you can see here on Orwell, 1984, and how Big Brother is ever present in a society that is driven by information.  Corporations picked up this thirst to know everything about you they can several years ago and maintain huge databases capturing every tidbit of data you will provide.  What the public doesn’t seem to understand is that once it is out there, it is there forever.

Take Google and Facebook alone and you have probably the most massive storehouse of private information available in the U.S.  Facebook’s Zuckerberg has been cited repeatedly for not protecting user data and Google just recently announced they would combine all their databases into one for more ease in profiling Internet surfers.  In my experience one of the worst things that affect consumers’ privacy is the combination of data which can virtually lay out a person’s life in its entirety.

What bothers me most is Pete Cashmore’s blasé attitude toward people giving up their data so easily.  He even compares this to the lack of control in 1984 by the citizens of Oceania where the thought police are everywhere.  There is absolutely no difference between that and the uncontrolled collecting of private information today that lingers in databases across the world which almost any first rate hacker can access. 

And the fact that consumers compound that by giving up their personal data so willingly only means that we are on the way to an unavoidable major disaster.

Research shows that Orwell actually predicted the Internet in the second draft of his dystopian novel but decided to cut this before publication.  There is no way to know just how the man envisioned this current feat of genius but it would be clear to me that he would not approve of it in any way challenging the right to privacy of Americans or the citizens of Oceania.

For the best site to explore George Orwell and 1984 go to Orwell Today.