Sumo Merriment

Sorry I missed you at LM. :<

This is another good collection from you! Agree that TFLS's post on the tragedy in Virginia was excellent. She expressed my feelings, perfectly. Not to take away from the Virginia deaths and I mean no disrespect, but another way to look at them, or rather another way to look at how they are being covered in the mainstream media, is that 65 Iraqis were killed on the same day...our one day of shock and sorrow and loss of loved ones to their 4-years worth of one day of shock and sorrow and loss of loved ones.
If only the same attention was paid...

I'm not at the point of passing judgment on anyone until we know all the facts. I'm still stuck at the point where 30+ people are murdered. If only 30 were killed in Baghdad, I imagine they would call that a good or better day than has become usual there.

It was a tragedy, as is all the people (from both sides) killed in Iran and elsewhere. I did hear about the two or more hour gap between the first murders and the later, mass shooting in VA and wondered about that.

What happened yesterday was a tragedy, and the media loves a tragedy.

Sumo..

I followed your link to FLS and left a comment (saying from whence I came of course)--a bit rambling and with typos but I agreed with her (and therefore also you :D).

I'm trying to work up a post myself on gun control which is shaping up to be a personal debate.

I just read your Democracy Not Theocracy post. Eloquent and sunbstantial--excellent!

BTW,, the new blog style? Lo--ove it!

oh and mirth makes a point that others have in the blogosphere have made in comparing this situation to daily life in Iraq.

The obvious point is that what is being regarded by our media as a major horror in the US is a daily occurence in Iraq, thanks in part to US actions and inactions there (let's face it, the US only unleashed the dogs of war and the lords of chaos--what they do afterwards is their affair, not ours--cough! cough!).

The more freely available weapons are to individuals. the more likely this kind of thing will happen. There's no chance of eliminating guns overnight in the US, but if this kind of thing horrifies ordinary citizens then we need to do something about it or else just live with it. Yet every time this sort of thing happens we, or rather the media, is fucking amazed and everyone starts "praying" for the victims and words are spoken and laws are passed and nothing changes.
And I;m afraid there is a sizeable number of those who "pray for the victims" in such events who refuse to recognize their own complicity.

5th...I so agree with you...especially the gun control. There's so much out there already we'll never keep track of that...but we should make it a lot harder to go forward getting guns in the future.

The more info we know - the worse it sounds. If only the campus police had not shunted this off as 'case closed'. About all we can do is pray for the survivors and the families of the slain. God help them. God help us all!

Don't worry, none of your tax money is going to fight the war in Iraq. That's all borrowed money. Your kids and grandkids' tax money is gonna go to pay *that* back. But we'll be dead by then, so what do we care? Screw the kiddies up every orifice! Yeah! That'll teach'em for, for... soiling their nappies when they were infants. Yeah!

-- Badtux the Taxed Penguin

; but of no real consequence because it was just a domestic dispute."

Now, there is a cop who has a great future in the law enforcement! In the Taliban held territories of Afghanistan, that is.

Very good comments, All. I'm happy I stopped in to read them.

The thing about non-reporting of near-daily deaths in Iraq is that it furters BushSpeak of 'Things are going good there' even as we know differently. And it isn't just deaths that are not being reported...Iraq has the largest population displacement the world has known since 1948 and the creation of Israel, and this is attended with all you would expect: lack of basic housing, food, work, healthcare, schools. In not demanding (and honestly, I don't know what more we bloggers can do besides what are already doing) our news media cover this crisis, we as a people are failing.
Regards guns...the country would be better if guns were outlawed. If someone wants to hunt, they should have to carry a knife between their teeth and give the animal a sporting chance. However, not too long ago I had a situation and a friend not only bought me a handgun, he taught me to properly use it. Dealing with this was an eye-opener and in the end I was glad I had the choice. It isn't outlawing guns, which in our society will never work, but strong legislation to control their manufacturing and ownership and use.

The televison watchers at work were clucking their tongues over the Viginia Tech tragedy, until I pointed out that this sort of tragedy occurs on a daily basis in Iraq. Then one old lady spoke up and said "They wuz gonna attack us."
If only the corporate media put as much coverage into the lies of the Bush adminstartion that got us into this war as they will into the shootings at Virginia Tech, Nancy Pelosi would be president now!

It's official: Chuck Hagel is the new John McCain, getting the glowing treatment from glam publications such as GQ. And John McCain is the new Bob Dole - and we know what kind of press Dole got.

But the Mainstream Media's affection for the senator has come to an end, for two reasons: First, McCain, now seeking to inherit the Bush political legacy - at least until he nails down the 2008 Republican presidential nomination - is now posing as Bush's best buddy, and the media aren't going to buddy up to that. Second, the Iraq War. The media, and most of the country, have reached a negative judgment on the war, and so the McCain campaign plank "If you like Bush's foreign policy, you'll love my foreign policy" is understandably playing poorly in Manhattan and Los Angeles.

So say goodbye to the media's portrayal of "St. John" McCain, the flinty, brave maverick. And say hello, instead, to a new "Bob Dole-ized" McCain. Like the Kansas Republican, who, as a 70-something, was mostly portrayed during the 1996 presidential campaign as a cranky and ranting old man, the 70-year-old Arizonan is being portrayed that way now.

But of course, just as the media take away, the media also give. And the recipient of media blessings these days is Chuck Hagel, senator from Nebraska. As a Republican critical of the Bush policy in Iraq, Hagel is infinitely more valuable to the anti-war cause than a mere Democrat. After all, nobody is surprised anymore when a Democrat opposes the war, but it's notable when a Republican breaks ranks with his own party's president - especially when he uses such punchy language, referring to the Iraq surge as the "most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam."

Such hot talk has earned Hagel a place of honor in the pages of GQ magazine's January issue, under the headline "The Angry One." And the object of much of Hagel's anger, of course - to the media's obvious delight - is Bush and his neoconservative coterie.

god am i glad the government has to give me all my money back this year. i'm not paying anything into this whole bloody mess we're trying to call the Global War on Terror. if only we could all be so lucky!
you know what i couldn't help thinking about? what if this whole VT thing was happening every single day to your family and friends? what if you lived in iraq, is basically what i'm saying. that feeling of grief everyone is feeling needs to be directed at the war and then nobody will want to be there but bush, cheney and rove.

Right on Earl.

Jeremy...you are so right on about Iraq too. The American public is owed to see what is really happening in photos and press coverage over there. It would make a big difference in this country if we could see the things like we did on the news with Viet Nam. The fact the the Nutt House has it all suppressed (thanks to the corporations that own the networks that are Dubs whores in crime). We need to be bombarded daily on the news with graphic photos so heinous that citizens would not want to go another day with this sort of thing happening in their name.