Greg Mitchell's Blog, page 82
June 6, 2014
Piercing the Sovereign Nation
Charles P. Pierce tonight on the latest "sovereign" attack, this time in Forstyh, Georgia.
Let's not kid ourselves. [Georgia shooter Dennis Marx] is a product of more than his own psychoses. He is a product of a conservative movement that has lost its moral bearings, a gun culture than imbibes paranoia the way some people drink iced tea, a media infrastructure -- from Roger Ailes's empire through the poison from which Clear Channel and other media conglomerate profit, all the way down to the guys broadcasting on short-wave from their root cellars in upper Michigan -- that enables and encourages and empowers armed political paranoia and does so for the cheapest possible reasons, for political power and for corporate profit. And, no, Both Sides do not do this. There is nothing comparable on the Left to the vast ideological bunker of the mind that has been created and sustained by the institutions of modern conservatism within which Dennis Marx found a home. In a week in which Bowe Bergdahl has been slandered for cheap points and cheaper laughs, the emergence (once again) of an actual American terrorist should be a very sobering moment.
Today in Gun Nutty USA
Our latest installment just about takes the cake: Tennessee man accidentally shoots and kills--himself--while driving. Gun in trousers were off, got hit in thigh, bled to death. Too bad, but better him than the usual--a little kid or neighbor.
"I just think it's sad all the way around because he was a good man, and he never caused any trouble that I knew of," said Dusty Minnis.
Deputies have a message they hope will keep you safe.
"Use caution on where your weapons are pointed when you're fooling with it, a weapon like he had has to be cocked, I would make sure it wasn't cocked," said Detective Scotty Wiggins.
The Execution of Eddie Slovik
With the Bergdahl flap not likely to go away soon, here's a Michael Daly piece on the last U.S. soldier executed for desertion, Eddie Slovik, near the end of WWII. Daly interviews a witness who calls Slovik actually a brave soldier. For some reason Daly recounts Frank Sinatra buying and then killing film rights at request of JFK's dad, but does not mention the TV movie starring young Martin Sheen that I found compelling way back when.
Rust Never Sleeps?
I'd be as happy as anyone if we actually got another season of Spin-and-Marty on True Detective but I think Huff Post is going a little overboard here in suggesting that Matthew is quite open to returning. My reading of it is he is saying he enjoyed doing a TV mini-series and would be "open" to doing another one--not necessarily one that involves good 'ol Rust Cohle. But, as they point out, if time is a flat circle that surely the role will be coming 'round again. And folks, as my 3rd grade teacher pointed out--it's "All right" (not "alright") and "already."
June 5, 2014
Just Another Campus Shooting?
This time it's Seattle, it's a Christian school, one dead and three injured (one very seriously) and many more might have died--young man with shotgun--if a student monitor did not tackle him.
“They were able to pin the shooter to the ground until police arrived,” Fowler said during a news conference. The gunman was taken into custody a short time after.
The victims were taken to the hospital with gunshot wounds that ranged “from minor to life threatening,” the Seattle Fire Department said.
Joni and the Current Scandal
With much in the news about the Catholic home in Ireland where kids (from unwed mothers and those raped) were treated so badly and 800 bodies found in sewage tanks....here's song from Joni Mitchell 20 years ago on the "Magdalene Laundries." Joni, herself, gave up a child in Canada and only re-united many years later. (Acclaimed recent film The Magdalene Sisters also comes to mind.) h/t @PattiHaskins
Bergdahl: The Wanderer
NYT with report on military probe of Bergdahl--which found he had history of wandering off post, for fun or to see how far he'd get...raising questions about "desertion" meme. May have been snatched while fooling around...
The issue is murky, the report said, in light of Sergeant Bergdahl’s previous episodes of walking off. The report cites accounts from his unit mates that in their predeployment exercise at the Army’s National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., he sneaked or crawled off a designated course or range either to see how far he could go or to see a sunrise or sunset.
Mo Dumb
Maureen Dowd getting a lot of earned mockery since her column on freaking out after eating some pot-laced chocolate in a Denver hotel room (although there is a serious issue in there about keeping same from kids). Now a marijuana "tour guide" claims he had given her lengthy and explicit warnings about this which she ignored and that "something's missing" in her story (maybe she was also bombed on booze?).
"I don’t see a way for people like Maureen Dowd, who want to try (marijuana) and want to have a good experience, to be able to socialize around others and talk with others and get a better feel ahead of time of how much you should eat and what you should feel," Brown told The Cannabist. "All of the problems that happened in her hotel room as she’s breaking off pieces of the infused candy bar … there’s something missing. When she was learning how to drink alcohol she could have seen other adults using moderation and other adults in bars puking and making an ass out of themselves — because it’s enjoyed communally and legally in bars. How do we have events and hotel rooms that are more open to this?”
When Bruce 'Got Political"
The Guardian with lengthy piece, and video, marking 30th anniversary of Born in the USA, on how Springsteen "became political" at that time, partly thanks to Ronald Reagan (and George Will?). As early friend and writer about Bruce (circa 1972) I can vouch for his "lack of politics" back then, and for years, and yet it did develop just before release of that album. Steve Van Zandt certainly played a role. But as for activism, his thing on big tour after that album came out was meeting with vets, going to their offices and hospitals and holding fundraising concerts for them (or outright just giving money), and for food banks and other community help groups. Later he got involved in other causes, recorded the Tom Joad album, and eventually took part in first political campaigns, for Obama. He's even survived the fandom of David Brooks and Chris Christie. (h/t David Hazan)
And, for quite different experience, here's Jeff Katz's fictional imaginings of Bruce's misgivings before the album came out. Cameo by Bob Dylan.
And, for quite different experience, here's Jeff Katz's fictional imaginings of Bruce's misgivings before the album came out. Cameo by Bob Dylan.
