Are More Attacks on Planned Parenthood Invevitable?

Murderer Robert Lewis Dear (L) and anti-abortion extremist, David Daleiden

Ninety-seven percent of the budget for activities at Planned Parenthood have noting to do with abortion services.   Services range from STD testing, treatment and vaccines to contraception services to sex education to cervical cancer screening; pregnancy testing, vasectomies; and LGBT related services.  Half of the Planned Parenthood facilities provide no abortion services whatsoever.  Planned Parenthood centers are known for providing services to minorities and the poor who have no other access to health care services other than hospital emergency rooms.  Of course, far right Christians oppose contraception of any form and have shown by their overwhelming support for Republican policies that providing health care services to the poor is not even on their radar screens.  Meanwhile, the Christofascists and professional Christian set continue to do all they can to spread lies and disinformation about Planned Parenthood - they spread similar lies and falsehoods about LGBT citizens - in the hope of whipping up violence against both Planned Parenthood and LGBT Americans.  With these "godly folk" the truth and honesty are unknown concepts. A piece in The Raw Story makes the case that the shootings in Colorado Springs yesterday were inevitable given the Christofascist non-stop propaganda.  Here are article highlights:

What happened at the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood on the Friday after Thanksgiving was inevitable. After the deceptively-named Center for Medical Progress released the equally deceptively-edited videos accusing Planned Parenthood of profiting from the sale of fetal parts, someone had to die in the end.

Of all the phony attacks and accusations made against Planned Parenthood by a new generation of anti-choice activists like James O’ Keefe and Lila Grace Rose, the videos created by former O’Keefe confederate David Daleiden raised the bar — or lowered it depending on how you view them — on over the top accusations intended to fire up Christian conservatives and embolden lawmakers to do all they can to destroy Planned Parenthood.

Where Daleiden really hit one out of the park for the anti-choice crowd was when he accused Planned Parenthood of selling  fetal tissue — used by researchers looking for cures for Alzheimer’s, among other things — and making a profit off of it.  Which turned out to be a lie.

When interviewed, Daleiden carefully parsed his words and flagrantly misinterpreted the words of the people caught on tape, thereby filling his nothing-burger of an exposé — for which he received a nice budget that allowed him to work on the project for two years — with red meat for the anti-choice crowd.

Daleiden was more than modestly successful. Republican lawmakers in conservative states were able to cut some funding for Planned Parenthood, while GOP presidential candidates had yet something else to grandstand about in order to woo the evangelical base.

With so much heat thrown off by Daleiden’s anti-abortion project, it is no surprise — and it absolutely cannot be to him — that someone somewhere would take his lies to the extreme and try and do something about it. With extreme prejudice.

According to NBC, Robert Lewis Dear — who killed three people including a cop, making him a hero to these “pro-life” folks while shooting up a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood — reportedly told investigators “no more baby parts" after he was arrested.
So it appears that Robert Lewis Dear shot up a Planned Parenthood because he was familiar with David Daleiden’s videotape lies. This is not to say that this is something that Daleiden was hoping for. But when Daleiden published his videos with great fanfare, he primed more than a few future domestic terrorists to take the law — God’s or their own — into their own hands.

David Dalieden didn’t pull the trigger — he just showed Robert Lewis Dear where he needed to aim the gun.

Rather that obsess about Islamic terrorists, perhaps the FBI and Home Land Security ought to be paying more attention to Christian extremists and their allies who create an atmosphere where murders occur.

"Godless Europe" Versus Gun Owning "Christian America"

The Christian hate merchants of the far right and a number of the knuckle dragging commentators that pander to them have been lamenting that the carnage in Aurora, Colorado and making bombastic statements that the killings are the result of America losing its Christian heritage and, god forbid, exhibiting increased tolerance towards gays (a small majority of Americans, in fact, support gay marriage and civil unions).  These claims make for good sound bites, especially when targeted at the simple minded sheep - cretins candidly would be a better description - in the pews.  But if a nation's level of religiosity and its willingness to keep religion from shaping the civil laws are indicators of moral degradation and attendant growing gun violence as claimed by the Christianists and their sycophants, then western Europe ought to be a veritable war zone with victims of gun fire littering the streets.  After all, the level of religiosity and adherence to far right Christian dogma is far lower than in the USA.  But such is not the case.  

Indeed, we see vastly lower levels of violence and gun violence in particular in what the Christianists like to call "godless Europe."   What's the explanation?  It's called gun control and a much reduce number of guns in the hands of those who should not have them.  How big is the difference?  The European nation with the highest level of guns per 100 people (i.e., Switzerland) has roughly half (1/2) the number of guns that are on the streets in America.  And in most European countries, the number of guns per 100 people is closer to one third (1/3) that in the USA.   And the result is that gun violence is much more of a rarity in Europe.  Yes, there was the horrific massacre in Norway, but even then some of the weaponry and ammunition was purchased in the USA and shipped to Norway in contravention of Norway's strict laws.

Thus, the real answer to the problem of gun violence isn't a "return to God," returning prayer to the public schools, or driving gays back into the closet.  No, the real answer is serious, common sense gun control which takes automatic assault rifles and any number of military style weapons off the streets.  Crooks and Liars has some telling quotes from Piers Morgan (who I don't typically follow) on the issue.  Here are highlights:

When you have a young man like this able to legally get 6,000 rounds of ammunition off the Internet, to buy four weapons including an assault rifle, and for all of this to be perfectly legal in modern America, allowing him to carry out the biggest shooting in the history of the United States, that, I'm afraid, means it's too late for this debate, for those people that lost their lives.

So don't patronize me about when we should be talking about the gun control debate. You tell me a good reason why we should not strengthen the law now to stop another young man like him going into a store tomorrow, buying four more weapons, 6,000 rounds of ammunition on the Internet, and killing and shooting another 70 people in America.

[W]e now know this young man legally purchased these weapons in the last two months, and purchased this staggering amount of ammunition -- he purchased a hundred-round drum magazine, allowing him to fire off 50 to 60 rounds in one minute in that movie theater, which is what has led to this mass slaughter and mass gun attack.  Given what has happened today, do you think there is now legitimate cause to press politicians for tougher gun control in America?

It's way overdue. And let me reclarify what I said at the start of this program. I respect the Second Amendment. I respect the average Americans' right to defend themselves in their own homes with a firearm, if they need to. This is a totally different issue that we're talking about today. It's got nothing to do with that right whatsoever.

America's Insane Gun Laws

News reports continue to ad details the the slaughter early Friday morning in Colorado and the calculated planning by the shooter.  One detail that struck me in a Virginian Pilot article was the following:

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to in order to discuss the investigation, said that the jammed weapon had a high-capacity ammunition magazine. Police have said that a 100-round drum magazine was recovered at the scene and that such a weapon would be able to fire 50 to 60 rounds a minute.

Which raises the following question: why does any law abiding citizen need to have a weapon that can fire 50 to 60 rounds per minute?   The obvious answer is that no one does unless they are potentially up to no good.  These weapons have one purpose: killing large amounts of people in short periods of time.  One can only wonder how many other nut cases and delusional anti-government types are in possession of such weapons at this moment.  Will our politicians change these insane laws?  I'm not holding my breath.  That would require, courage and character - things not would in far too many of our elected officials.


UPDATED:  New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg is planning on reintroducing gun control legislation on the Senate floor to limit high-capacity magazines.  Lautenberg said that “the only reason to have 33 bullets loaded in a handgun is to kill a lot of people very quickly” and pledged that he would introduce legislation to ban high-capacity ammunition clips.  Watch the Republicans do all they can to defeat the legislation and leave the door open for more carnage.

Colorado's Lax Gun Laws

Here in Virginia, the GOP controlled General Assembly seems to want nothing less than a return to the old west where almost everyone is packing.  Worse yet, the guns are often concealed thanks to easily secured concealed carry permits.  And obviously, the more legal guns there are, the greater the supply available to fall into the hands of criminals and obviously mentally ill "law abiding citizens" like the shooter in Colorado.  The extremists who can always be relied upon to whine and carry on about 2nd Amendment rights - which in their warped world the right to have virtually any deadly weapon - bear a direct guilt for the lives lost yesterday.  As do the gutless politicians who roll over like cheap whores to the elements of the far right and the gun lobby.  The frightening truth is that what happened in Colorado could easily occur in Virginia because almost anyone can secure a gun if they really want one.  And to me, it's no coincidence that typically the gun advocates are the same folks who seethe with anti-gay, anti-Muslim, and anti-minority venom.  That's why it is telling to look at Colorado's pathetic gun laws that allowed James Holmes to purchase 4 guns in a two month time period - particular an automatic weapon.  Here are highlights from a New York Times article:

As a mountain state, Colorado has a history of broad support for Second Amendment rights. But in the years since the Columbine tragedy, the state’s lawmakers and voters passed some gun restrictions, including requirements governing the sale of firearms at gun shows, a law regulating people’s ability to carry concealed weapons and legislation banning “straw purchases” of weapons for people who would not qualify to buy them legitimately. 

Still, James Holmes, 24, the former neuroscience student believed to be the lone gunman in Friday’s shootings in Aurora, armed himself with an assault rifle, a shotgun and a handgun to allegedly kill 12 and wound 59 others, many critically. All were weapons that would probably be legal for him to possess.   “The guy basically had normal guns,” said Eugene Volokh, an expert in constitutional law at the University of California, Los Angeles. Unless some new evidence of documented psychiatric disturbance emerges, Mr. Volokh added, “there’s no indication that, from his record, he is someone whom more restrictive screening procedures would have caught.” 

Despite the changes over the past 13 years, Colorado law still prohibits local governments from restricting gun rights in several significant ways. Moreover, gun rights organizations have successfully fought other efforts to restrict access to guns, including blocking a University of Colorado rule prohibiting concealed weapons on campus. 

Carrying a concealed weapon requires a permit, but Colorado is among those states whose rules on permits are relatively lax, said Heather Morton of the National Conference of State Legislatures. Colorado is one of 38 “shall issue” states. She explained that this meant “if a person complies with all of the requirements, then the state must issue a concealed weapons permit.” 

In the never-ending argument, tragedy can become a talking point. Luke O’Dell, a spokesman for the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, a Colorado-based group that fights gun control measures, said private gun restrictions may well have had “tragic consequences” in the shootings. 

He noted that the theater chain that owns the Aurora movie house bans firearms on the premises, and said that if other patrons had been legally able to carry weapons, the death toll might have been less. Mr. O’Dell also said that Mayor Bloomberg’s call for a discussion of gun issues was “exploiting the blood of these innocent victims to advance his political agenda.” 

I'd argue that it is O'Dell who is exploiting the blood of the victims, not Michael Bloomberg.  Can you imagine how many more lives might have been lost if, as Mr. O'Dell argues, a panicked shooting free for all had broken out between Holmes and gun packing movie goers?  The only real solution is to get automatic weapons out of the hands of civilians and to have strict limits on hand gun purchases.

Another Shooting Massacre - Meanwhile Expired Assault Weapon Ban Would Have Coverd Shooter's Rifle

As long time readers may recall, I am an advocate for tough gun control laws.  I guess my views were colored years ago by the utter disregard that hunters and gun rights advocates demonstrated toward private property rights years ago when I was growing up.  For newer readers, my folks had 50 acres of land and horses in Upstate New York when I was growing up.  And literally every year we diligently put up "posted" and "No trespass" signs on all of the boundaries to our property and every year hunters totally disregarded the signs, came on out property and made it dangerous for to go riding and made it dangerous for our horses.  The mind set seemingly hasn't changed and my brother in Keswick,Virginia has the same problem all these years later on his property and "hunters" even shoot onto his property from their vehicles - something that is very illegal.  

Despite this evidence that gun owners see themselves above the rules and the laws, we hear the time and time again mantra from the NRA and its puppets that "law abiding" citizens aren't the problem behind guns and massacres like that which occurred in Colorado in the early morning hours today.  But the truth is that they ARE the problem.  The shooter in the Virginia Tech shootings, the shooter in the Gabby Giffords shootings, and the shooter today, James Eagan Holmes (pictured above), ALL were law abiding citizens up until the time that went on shooting rampages.  And all of them legally purchased the weapons that the used to wreak death and terror on those they did not even know.

The simple truth is that NO ONE who is a peaceful, decent citizen needs to own an assault rife.  NO ONE.  Yet because of the efforts of the NRA and other far right elements, laws that might have prevented the needless, senseless deaths we've seen either have been killed or repealed.  Every politician who supports these insanely unrestricted gun purchase rights bears a portion of the responsibility for those who died today.  As Think Progress reports,   the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 which was allowed to expire would have banned one of the weapons used by Holmes today.  Sadly, that law was allowed to expire due to the efforts of the NRA and its political prostitutes in Congress.  Guns ARE the problem.  True, control laws will not take guns away from all the criminals.  But they would stop the "lawful" purchases that seem to always be part and parcel with the mass shootings and murder that we continue to see across the country.  Here are highlights from Think Progress:

One of the principal weapons used by James Eagan Holmes in the horrific Dark Knight Rises shooting would have been subject to a series of sharp restrictions under the now-expired federal Assault Weapons ban. The AR-15 rife carried by Holmes, a civilian semi-automatic version of the military M-16, would have been defined as a “semiautomatic assault weapon” under the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. If the law was still in force, semiautomatic assault weapons would have been outright banned:

Such weapons were “unlawful for a person to manufacture, transfer, or possess” under section (a)(v)(i).

Though there were several loopholes in the Violent Crime Control Act that allowed gun manufacturers to legally produce slightly modified AR-15s, a new version of the bill proposed in 2008 closed them.

The 1994 Act contained a sunset provision that caused it to automatically expire 10 years after passage, and it was not renewed in 2004, meaning that there are no federal restrictions on the ownership of AR-15s and similar weapons. Both Congressman Ed Perlmutter (who represents Aurora, the site of the shooting) and President Obama proposed a new assault weapons ban during their campaigns.

 Holmes’ guns, including his AR-15, were all legally purchased since May from two national chains, Bass Pro Shops and Gander Mountain Guns.

Purportedly, the AR-15 used by Holmes had a high-capacity clip, which were banned as “large capacity ammunition feeding devices” in the 1994 legislation.

The irony isn't lost on me either that it is always the "conservatives," "godly Christians" and their political flunkies who wrap themselves in religiosity who always oppose meaningful gun control and set the stage for these mass slaughters of innocents.   The rights of innocent victims surely trumps antiquated 2nd Amendment rights that are part of the GOP's mantra of God, gays and guns.  It's yet another reason I cannot in good conscience be a Republican.

HELL HATH NO FURY LIKE A HOMO SCORNED?

I have been waiting for someone to try to pin Matthew Murray's actions in shooting individuals at both Youth With A Mission and at New Life Church on his sexual orientation. Leave it to slimy FOX News to lead the way on this issue. Fortunately, Proceed at Your Own Risk has a post (http://rjr10036.typepad.com/proceed_at_your_own_risk/2007/12/hell-hath-no-fu.html) about this issue that sheds perhaps further light on what drove Murray to snap - lies and hypocrisy among the area Christianists (remember that Focus on the Family, one of the biggest proponents of the "cure" myth, is based right in Colorado Springs). Imagine Murray's frustration if he was thrown out of Youth With A Mission because of his orientation and then he sees Ted Haggard being granted a free pass of sorts and forgiveness after he claimed to be "cured" within a few weeks and announced he was now "fully heterosexual" something we gays know is not true.

To be perfectly clear, I in no way condone the Colorado shootings or violence against other individuals for perceived wrongs EVER. But there would be a certain irony if it were to prove out that Murray's inability to be "cured" as consistently and falsely promised by these Christianist organizations literally all around him is what made him go over the edge. Having tried for over three decades to be "cured" myself before finally coming out and ultimately finding peace with my sexual orientation (after five years of therapy), I can at least catch perhaps glimmers of the rage at God and at Christianists that Murray felt. I myself felt at times that my life had been ruined by religious frauds and liars. I suspect that many in the LGBT community have had a similar experience. Here are some highlights form Proceed at Your Own Risk:

FOX, always vigilant when it comes to the gay scourge, is now reporting that Matthew Murray, the deeply troubled young man who shot and killed himself and members of Ted Haggard's New Life Church and the church's Youth With A Mission program was gay. In fact, he may be a victim of the church's ex-gay reparative therapy program. Having failed to find heterosexuality through Jesus it appears that Murray was booted out of the youth program and out of the church. Crushed by this rejection and overwhelmed by rage and despair thanks to the curse of homosexuality, Murray went on a killing spree that ended with himself.

I would hope "and pray" that America's reaction to this would be a growing realization that homophobia--and Christian homophobia in particular--is a deep and pervasive poison in our society that does much harm to our culture, our spiritual and political health and the human spirit. Murray's rage seems to have had several layers. He was furious that the Church had forgiven Ted Haggard but not him. He believed that he had done everything he was supposed to do according to New Life Church counselors but was still booted out for being queer. And, perhaps most perfidious of all, Jesus had failed to cure him.

Betrayed by the Church and crushed by the curse of unholy same sex desires, Murray chose that most American of Constitutionally protected solutions to his life problems: He purchased a small arsenal that included assault rifles and an an assortment of semi-automatics and then he went on his All-American shooting spree. We easily talk about the cost of homophobia in terms of teen suicide, substance abuse, shattered self-esteem and chronic depression, but we shy away from the impact homophobia may be having on all of us, not just troubled queers.

We badly need to more closely examine the pathology of homophobia and the closet as these onerous institutions drive men to an intense state of self-loathing, self-delusion and much harm to themselves and, it appears, to others.

Police say Murray was motivated by revenge. Revenge for what? The answer seems to be in Murray's blogging, according to the FOX report. After trying to "go all out for God" and failing, Murray wrote he fell into a deep depression. Murray, 24, was dismissed from Youth With a Mission in 2002 for what the training center has described only as health reasons. Last summer, he wrote, "People like us are going to go to hell, according to Christians." He lists several reasons why. Reason number seven is bluntly stated, "I'm bisexual."

In other postings, Murray wrote, "... I can never get a female date. I am at least able to get some male action." And later, he wrote about confronting his mother about his bisexuality. Murray wrote that he told her, "Using drugs, alcohol and having gay sex, I'm just trying to do what any Christian pastor would do. At least I'm not doing meth like Ted Haggard." Murray also noted that the Church forgave Haggard. He posted, "I want to know where was all the love, mercy and compassion for my supposed imperfections?"

At least in Iran, the executions of gay men are swift. In the United States we prefer to slowly drive our gay children insane so that they grow up to be monsters.

Additional information is set out at the Denver Post (http://www.denverpost.com/ci_7704989) and at this site where what are believed to be some of Murray's postings about his unhappiness and issues with religion can be found: http://www.thoughttheater.com/2007/12/murray_had_confrontation_at_new_life_church_in_200.php