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For good measure, here's Grumpy Cat's score for the week.
I'll see if I can rouse myself out of my "I can't be all DOOM all the time" mood to post something more serious. Don't count on it tomorrow or Sunday, as this weekend features the summer solstice, Fathers Day, and the Sunday entertainment entry, which will be on the return of "The Last Ship," among other things. Maybe Monday, in time to share with Kunstler's readers.
C'mon Pinku, you should be happy! There's only a worldwide headline-grabbing gun massacre in the U.S. every six months or so. With as many guns and madness floating around in a society of 300+ million, I'm surprised it's not once a week. That might be because what it takes to grab headlines needs to keep inflating, to have a higher death toll or a new angle to separate it from the previous massacre. I was reading in some blog comment about this story the stats from a website that keeps track of mass shootings in the U.S. (Sorry, there was no link to the site in the comment, and I can't be bothered to Oogle for it.) There were just a couple Southern states cited as examples (Jawjuh was one, bless its no-longer-beating heart.) Several times each month in the exemplified states there were 3, 4 and 5-person fatal shootings. Only, horrors of that magnitude are nothing more than local news items. Freedom!
ReplyDelete"Only, horrors of that magnitude are nothing more than local news."
DeleteThat reminds me of what I tell my students about traffic deaths. There are marginally more of them each year than shooting fatalities, between 32,000 and 34,000 for cars vs. 30,000 to 32,000 for guns since the Great Recession began and most of those are merely local news. Of course, most of the gun deaths are suicides, not homicides. There are about 8,000 per year of those. The mere number of them means that they are not major news unless, as you point out, the number, motive, or location of the deaths makes them stand out. However, the number of gun deaths will make news when they outstrip traffic deaths. That could happen this year, but I have my doubts, as cheaper gas is allowing Americans to drive more miles, which will increase traffic deaths. I expect between 34,000 and 35,000 this year, which will stay ahead of gun deaths.
Of course, that's no the only reason for my reaction. I'm appalled by the racist motive for this act of hate and terror and am thoroughly disgusted that it happened in church. I'm not a religious person, but I want believers of all stripes to be allowed to worship in peace in return for me to be allowed not to believe. A lot of people who claim religious liberty is important only want freedom for their religion to be practiced, not all religions. Hypocrites.