Wednesday, September 23, 2020

Who would Jesus murder?

 
Ye have heard it said, thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he makes the sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans do so? ~Matthew 5:43-47

"Not a shot fired and we gave up our freedom."

I saw this sign in town yesterday, it's relatively new.

What freedom was that, I wonder, as I never heard about this. It seems like, legally, there would've had to be some kind of announcement or referendum or something.

And right behind it, a Trump sign, which isn't new. Maybe that particular sign is, but this house has had some kind of a Trump sign since 2015. For the record, this year it's the only one on either cross-street, surrounded by a sea of signs for Biden, Gary Peters, and other Democrats. The only Republican signs are one for John James, and a few for our useless local Republican State House Rep. Some of the houses that have Biden signs now had Trump signs four years ago.

I'd like to note for the record that whatever "freedom" this asshole imagines he lost happened under a Trump presidency, so I can't quite imagine what he thinks will be different in a second go-round. Of course I'm sure it's just anti-mask bullshit.

What great freedom it is, to die in the street, or your own house, of a perfectly well avoidable virus? What a grim, nasty world these fucking people want to live in.

Last night, I saw this, Fox News idiots yet again trying to defend Kyle Rittenhouse, calling him a "Little boy."

First off, bitch, I was 17 once, I'd have been massively offended at being called a little boy, and I sure as hell wasn't. I was a young man, feverishly trying to work in as much "adult" stuff as I possibly could, because that's what one does when one is a horny young man, almost regardless of politics.
 
Likewise, Kyle Rittenhouse ain't no boy. If he was on that emotional level and had real parents, it would never have occurred to him to commit crimes, or kill two people and wound a third in a city and state where he did not live, defending things he did not own, on behalf of a political system in which he was legally too young to participate, because of a President who does not give a shit.

He's a young man who made a decision, albeit a foolish one, to have himself driven across state lines with a weapon, with the intent of committing crimes. You don't take that kind of rifle with you unless you intend to kill somebody. It's not a deer rifle, it's not a handgun, it's a military-style rifle that fires NATO standard 5.56mm ammunition, which only has one purpose, to gravely injure or kill human beings. You have to know how the stuff works to fully understand that. That kind of bullet is designed to fragment inside the target, and it's a devilishly clever design for doing just that. This wasn't some kid packing a .22 Ruger for self-defense. He wanted to kill people.

And it's beyond shameful that Republicans are defending this little asshole.

Likewise, It's beyond imagination to me, not least because I'd been taught how serious of a matter handling weapons was, and that they are not political statements or toys or a means of showing one's masculinity. I learned how to shoot as a kid, and inherited my Dad's guns after he passed away. I was not even allowed to handle them without one of my Grandfathers or Uncles present, although that list later grew to include my Mom and this went on that way until I was old enough to drive a car and have my license. Even then, if I was leaving the house with one of my rifles, to go to the range or go hunting, I had to tell my Grandparents or my Mom where I was going, how long I'd be gone and when I'd be back, in addition to following the procedures for the homeowner's association my Mom lives on, which means they knew who's at the rifle range or in the hunting areas too.

I come from a military family, both of my grandfathers and most of my great-uncles were World War II veterans. All of my uncles had served in the Vietnam era, most on active duty, two in the National Guard, and one who was in the Navy never came home. We took weapons-handling seriously and there were always strict-ass rules about guns and other weapons, even knives were not to be messed around with. These rules remained in direct effect until I left home to join the Air Force, and came back into force whenever I came home, and they're still there. Just now, I'm one of the people charged with enforcing and maintaining them on the rare occasions we all get together. I've taught a couple of my cousins to shoot.

So, yeah...

If I'd have ever thought of committing crimes with a weapon, much less killing somebody, I'd have got my ass beat, my weapons taken away, and the cops called on my ass, because I had real parents who gave a shit, about me, about life, about right and wrong.

But that's the kicker, isn't it?

Apparently, conservatives don't give a shit about right and wrong. Giving an award for "Christ-like behavior" to a man who's ordered seven executions is pretty much the height of hypocrisy, it's downright anti-Christ if you ask me.

It makes you wonder just what happened to "Thou Shalt Not Kill?" My grandparents on both sides had the Ten Commandments somewhere in their homes, in multiple languages. My Dad's side of the family had them in Finnish and Swedish besides of course English, one set of grandparents had them spread around the house. The other had them in English and Norwegian on the back wall of the living room, one framed, the other a hand-carved wooden plaque given to my Grandpa by my Great-Grandma. 

We were religious, and my family was fairly well split between Catholics and Lutherans. Nearly everybody was against Capital Punishment except for my Republican uncle Bill, and even he wasn't gung-ho for it. He just thought it should be an option. For the Catholics on my Mom's side, when Pope John Paul II came out against capital punishment that was that. For the Lutherans and the occasional American Baptist on my Dad's side of the family (My Dad became a Baptist, and that was the tradition I was raised in) they always had been. I was kind of the exception, supporting Capital Punishment in some cases. 

I've gradually become very disgusted with the relish with which modern "Conservatives" want to execute people. 

It's not a deterrent, it doesn't work that way. I've figured out down through the years that some of these fucking people get off on killing other human beings. I don't think that's right, and you can make the State your murder weapon all you want, that doesn't absolve you of wanting the deaths of others your own damn self.

And you sure don't get to call yourself "Christ-like" for killing people, whether you do it using the power of the State or a rifle in the street.

Who would Jesus murder?

Remember that.

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