If you’re wondering what happened to the whacky Lyndon LaRouche supporters who promoted Nuclear Fusion in the 1980’s and infiltrated and nearly destroyed the Loudoun Democratic Party, their former spokesperson, Christina N. Huth, is now writing letters of support for Dave LaRock.
Having worked for Dave LaRock’s 1789 Project, Evan Mantel, a recent graduate of Patrick Henry College, says he is now “cynical towards politics.”
I wonder if he’s also now cynical toward our local press. Mantel’s letter to the editor describing his unpleasant experience appeared in the Loudoun Times Mirror on May 2, and was removed on May 5. I’m still waiting to hear an explanation for the removal, but given other recent conduct by the LaRock campaign the application of pressure to the editor seems likely. If that turns out to be true, it’s very disappointing behavior from a candidate for public office.
Luckily, the original letter was saved in Google’s webcache. It reveals a pattern of self-indulgence, abuse, and theft of labor hours. See for yourself: The letter is reproduced here, just in case LaRock’s campaign to represent Virginia’s 33rd District is successful at bullying Google, too. Continue reading
Culture of Death
This letter appeared in today’s Purcellville Gazette (warning 12Mb .pdf file).
“If there were no guns in the house, a drunk 16 year old would have been taken home by the Sheriff’s Department. No one would be DEAD.” So said a friend of the late Caleb A. Gordley in an online comment. No amount of ‘coulda, shoulda, woulda’ excuse making can change this unassailable fact. If Donald West Wilder hadn’t had a gun, or if he hadn’t made the choice to shoot Caleb, Caleb would be alive today.
Three letter writers last week tried to justify the killing. John Phillips, speaking for Mr. Wilder, said “[P]eople will play politics with this…I did the right thing.” Kevin Fitzpatrick asked “What about the guilt [Wilder] will live with for the rest of his life because of a string of poor decisions made by some teenagers.” Jim Schatz first described the shooting as “accidental,” but then claimed that Mr. Wilder was “required” to use deadly force. Required by whom?
Mr. Schatz also cites something he calls “God-given rights to self-protection.” We understand that it’s fashionable in some circles to claim that whatever one wants to do is a “God-given right,” but this is a fabrication. When Peter cut off the ear of one sent to arrest Jesus, Jesus admonished him, telling the apostles “those who live by the sword will die by the sword.” In the story of the “Good Samaritan,” Jesus explicitly told his followers to put first the needs of others, NOT a concern for their own safety. Jesus also did not speculate about a “string of poor decisions” made by the man who was tended to by the Samaritan. We have a responsibility (not a right) to love our neighbors – including especially a teenager so drunk that he has mistakenly climbed in the wrong window. Claiming that the “right” to protect property is more important than the life of another person is worship of the creation, not the Creator. The inevitable result is a culture of death.
David and Jonathan Weintraub, Lovettsville
An angry, angry Frank Wolf
The newly-formed “Special Operations Speaks” PAC is actively supporting Congressman Frank Wolf’s H.Res. 36, a bill to create a House Select Committee on the Terrorist Attack in Benghazi and essentially produce a wiki-leaks like trove of information about the attack and the response. The SOS PAC includes noteworthy christianist warrior LTG William G. (Jerry) Boykin who made “fiercely anti-Muslim” remarks on NBC Nightly News and the Los Angeles Times, and claimed that George W. Bush was “put by god in the White House,” and that the war on terror is “a spiritual war against a spiritual enemy, and that enemy’s name is Satan.”
In their open letter, the SOS PAC demands the release of all manner of classified operational information. Ironically, the SOS mission statement condemns certain leaks (emphasis mine).
“We, as veterans, legatees, and supporters of the Special Operations communities of all the Armed Forces, have noted with dismay and deep alarm the recent stream of highly damaging leaks of information about various aspects of America’s shadow war in the overall War on Terror.”
The story was reported in the Daily Mail Online, where scary Benghazi photos are framed against a storyboard of Hollywood celeb gossip.
Kyra Gracie - MMA fighter
She meant you harm. She meant harm to your family, your property, and she had the capability. She could kill you with a pen knife, a pencil, a piece of dental floss, or her bare hands. You shot her. You were “required*” to do so. You “did the right thing.” You are a hero.
But the autopsy reveals that she was six weeks pregnant, and in Kansas and fourteen other states, human life begins at fertilization. That fetus she was carrying is a “person.”
Did the fetus little person intend to harm you too? The little person was in your home castle. So you shot her too. She was no innocent little person. She was a home invader, like her mom. Bye bye little one. You made my day.
“*required” according to Jim Schatz’s April 5, 2013 letter to the editor of the Purcellville Gazette.
If there were no guns in the house, a drunk 16 year old would have been taken home by the Sheriff’s Department. No one would be DEAD.
The quote above, by KathleenVS, is a response to ugly comments on the shooting death of Caleb A. Gordley, a sixteen year old Park View High School junior. Her comment isn’t a debate argument. It is a fact.
The facts of the tragedy are less clear. Donald West Wilder, a Sterling Volunteer Fire Company veteran allegedly fired a warning shot, and when Caleb passed him in the stairwell and walked down the hall, Wilder “discharged his firearm several times,” shooting him in the back. Was Mr. Wilder protecting other members of the household from a youth who was so inebriated that he didn’t notice a stranger shooting at him? Sheriff Chapman confirmed that Gordley had no criminal intent when entering the home.
Congressman Frank Wolf (R-VA), Chair of the House Appropriations Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Subcommittee held a meeting on the National Science Foundation report: “Youth Violence: What We Need To Know” on March 19 that correlated video games with violence. No video game proponents were called to witness, and the video game industry is calling foul.
“Unfortunately Chairman Wolf is trying to make this hearing as one -sided as he possibly can. The hearing will have two panels and two witnesses – both who will present evidence that violent media has some sort of connection to real-world violent acts. Wolf is handling this hearing the way other lawmakers tried to handle SOPA and PIPA; by presenting only one perspective. Clearly there’s mountains of research that disputes Bushman’s claim that video games and other media are a bad influence on America’s youth.”
Wolf’s press release on the NSF report states that (emphasis mine):
“The research described in the NSF report supports Wolf’s belief that rampage shootings are a result of multiple factors, including access to firearms, mental health issues, and exposure to violent media, including violent video games.”
Congressman Wolf could have called the authors of Grand Theft Childhood, Drs. Cheryl K. Olson and Lawrence Kutner who have been studying the issue since 2004 after winning a $1.5M grant from George W. Bush’s Justice Department. Their research exposes many of the myths that the Wolf-funded report perpetuates.
If you have kids, ask them if they know the difference between real world tragedy, and video game violence. I bet they do.
Scott Hamberger, vice-chair of the Loudoun County Government Reform Commission “elevates” Pete Peterson’s “Campaign to Fix the Debt” in a recent LTE to the Leesburg Today. Visit fixthedebt.org and you’ll see a strange synchrony of fearmongering. All of the sudden, a bunch of grass tops groups covering a variety of demographics are informing us that “debt is bad.” And all the web sites of the collaborating groups look strangely similar. And the messaging is all the same.
That messaging reminds me of those “Car Cash” commercials. “Bring us your car title and you can drive away, smiling, with a hand full of cash.” Cash is good, and debt is bad, right?
Pete Peterson, the billionaire, who’s “mostly false” claims are parroted by Congressman Frank Wolf (R-VA) appears to be behind the scheme which is covered in depth in the week’s “The Nation” magazine and in a NY Times article titled “Public Goals, Private Interests in Debt Campaign“.
The Nation describes the “elevating” of the so-called debt controversy thusly:
Who does that elevating? Meet the Campaign to Fix the Debt, the billionaire-funded project that uses Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles as figureheads for a fearmongering campaign to convince Americans that the deficits the United States has run throughout its history have suddenly metastasized into “a cancer that will destroy this country from within.” It is the latest incarnation of Wall Street mogul Pete Peterson’s long campaign to get Congress and the White House to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid while providing tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy.
Peterson has poured an estimated half-billion dollars into schemes so unpopular, so economically unsound and so obviously self-serving that even conservative politicians run from them, as the implosion of the Simpson-Bowles commission illustrates. So Peterson has repurposed his project into what Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) Global Economy Project director Sarah Anderson calls “a Trojan horse” for “filthy rich tax-dodging hypocrites.” With a stable of CEOs, Peterson timed the launch of this new $60 million campaign to exploit the wrangling over the fiscal cliff, the debt ceiling and the sequester. Fix the Debt has signed up prominent Democrats and Republicans as spokespeople (many of whom have undisclosed financial ties to firms that lobby on deficit-related issues) and launched “astroturf” campaigns to create the fantasy that young people and seniors are concerned enough about debts and deficits to support Peterson’s austerity agenda.
In case you missed it, Congressman Frank Wolf (R-VA) voted against the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. I’m sure the “Family” “Research” Council is very pleased because the new version of the VAWA protects GLBT people and Wolf and his ilk don’t believe that they exist.
The photo of a Nigerian oil spill, above, comes from desmonadespair. It shows the reality of life for people who happen to live over oil fields ripe for extraction. Meanwhile, Eric Metaxas writing for BreakPoint on March 6, 2013 explains Prison Fellowship Ministries’ “worldview” product, emphasis mine. Continue reading