How to Get a Job By Shooting Up a Church

[davidswanson]

Imagine being so angry that you couldn't find a job that you were able to decide, as a man in Tennessee just did, that the way to solve your problems was to attack liberals - the people who support (albeit ineffectively) workers' rights, union rights, and fair trade, who oppose NAFTA, oppose tax breaks for shipping jobs overseas, support investing in job creation at home rather than wars abroad, and want to tax corporations and the super-rich rather than small businesses and working people.

And imagine deciding that the way to attack the people who stand for everything that might help you is to go shoot up a bunch of men, women, and children. And then imagine telling those damn liberals: "You see, you were wrong at least about gun policies, because if angry desperate people who believe everything they hear on the radio weren't allowed to get mad and go buy guns I never could have shot up your children's play! And why are you showing a dumb play about poor kids, anyway? You never put on plays about people like me, potential billionaires down on their luck who've been threatened by Muslim terorists and mistreated by blacks and gays and women and liberals!"

And imagine the Associated Press report completely playing along with your delusion, and writing:

"Although individual Unitarian churches can vary dramatically in outlooks, most congregations retain a deep commitment to social justice, which has led many to embrace liberal stances on the ordination of women, civil rights and gay rights."

What if labor rights had been mentioned?

And then imagine that the Knoxville News Sentinel gives your heros credit for deranging your mind and filling you up with bizarrely misdirected rage:

"Inside the house, officers found 'Liberalism is a Mental Health Disorder' by radio talk show host Michael Savage, 'Let Freedom Ring' by talk show host Sean Hannity, and 'The O'Reilly Factor,' by television talk show host Bill O'Reilly."

And what if you were then given decades behind bars, without ever a word of thanks from your heros, to think about what in the world you might have been thinking? What would your advice end up being for others in the same sort of trouble you were in?

I like to think you'd eventually recommend selling your radio and television and spending some time talking to real people.

Speaking as a liberal who supports a sustainable full-employment economy with guaranteed education, income, and health care, I'm sorry that we have failed you and so many others so drastically, in fact failed so badly that you don't even have the slightest idea who we are. I suspect that if you knew us you would find us to have goals you approve of but to be grotesquely and despicably timid, hesitant, and easily compromised in how we go about trying to accomplish anything. And you'd be right.

We'll tell your story, for a week or so, both as an example of the effect of hatemongering propaganda and as an example of desperate economic stress and lack of community. But will we DO anything to improve those situations? I seriously doubt it. This is an election year, after all.

[ingac70]

1. k&r

[Beam Me Up]

2. K & R

[my2sense]

3. K & R

[Ichingcarpenter]

4. kick nominated n/t

[dmr]

5. The wonders of critical thinking

this is what makes my heart ache so much of the time wondering why and how others don't see what is so plain to see.

I tell my neighbor this: "All I ask is that you take some out of your day to think. Think about what is said, and then think about what is done."

[napoleon_in_rags]

6. Fuckin' A! Why is the media reporting on him being angry because he was without a job?

Not having a job is not a motive for shooting up a church. PLAIN AND SIMPLE. The actual motive was hate, nothing else.

[ingac70]

17. Apparently he thought that his joblessness...

was the fault of the "libruls".

[nxylas]

28. Yes because of affirmative action

Which he and his ilk take to mean "taking my job and giving it to some damn n****r". Here's conservative blogger Rod Dreher pushing that seductive lie today:

http://blog.beliefnet.com/crunchycon/2008/07/obama-mccain-and-affirmative-a.html
(check out the comments too)

Ironically, his very next post is about the church killings, and he naturally fails to make any connection between the two.

[mmonk]

7. Yes, election years are about compromise afterall.

[yardwork]

8. Powerful words.

"Speaking as a liberal who supports a sustainable full-employment economy with guaranteed education, income, and health care, I'm sorry that we have failed you and so many others so drastically, in fact failed so badly that you don't even have the slightest idea who we are. I suspect that if you knew us you would find us to have goals you approve of but to be grotesquely and despicably timid, hesitant, and easily compromised in how we go about trying to accomplish anything. And you'd be right."

[BrklynLiberal]

9. K&R. He took out his anger on those very people who might have helped him....

and admired those who helped put him in the situation he was in..
THAT is how the Repukes work. Isn't this what the book "What's Wrong with Kansas?" was about? This sort of person does not even realize who the real villains in his life are...and blames those who might help.
How sad and ironic and very scary.

[stevedeshazer]

10. Outstanding.

Thank you.

[FloridaJudy]

11. Those are exactly the books

I would have expected this guy to have. I'm only surprised he didn't have any of Ann Coulter's.

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{sigh}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

He took their words to heart and acted on them. How long are these people going to be paid to spew hate?

[sofa king]

25. He should have had my book.

It would be just like all the other books of the same name, with two exceptions. One is this disclaimer, which I would discreetly place somewhere prominent in the book. It's not as if the purchaser is going to read this or any other part, anyway:

Publisher's Note: All proceeds from the sale of this book will go to personally enrich the publisher, to supporting liberal political candidates, and fighting to ignorance. No funds will ever go to support any organized religion.

The other is the cover:



I think it would sell pretty well.

(Forgive me for trying to introduce a little bit of levity into an otherwise sad subject.)

[Ian_rd]

26. People like O'Reilly, Savage, Coulter, Hannity are filling a vital role in our society

This country is controlled by a tiny percentage of wealthy individuals who enjoy their lavish lifestyle at the expense of everyone else. The only way they can remain secure in this position while avoiding a class revolution is to fund and maintain at great expense a system of media whose sole purpose is to divide the working class and the poor against each other. This keeps the rich away from conflict and criticism as the lower classes fight each other instead of them.

In third world countries, the rich typically rely on walls, barbed wire, and armed guards. In America, they have the mainstream media to fulfill the same role - to safeguard their spoils from the despoiled.

[KG]

34. i'm suprised to hear he had books at all. most of these ditto-head types can't bothered to read.

they usually get their indoctination from listing to hours and hours of hate radio.

[caraher]

12. Thanks! I hadn't followed this story at all (I ignore most "random shooting" stories

but there's a LOT more to this one, apparently!

[Norrin Radd]

13. kr

[Divine Discontent]

14. yep - the story abou the church should have said - "and Union/Worker rights", yet didn't!

they don't want to point out that the loony slobbering rightwinger was attacking the very people who supported him in his desire for work - instead he attacks those who have compassion for him... how ridiculous. K&R



More at - - - www.cafepress.com/warisprofitable

[KillCapitalism]

15. Maybe now he can get a job.

Too bad all it will be is a job in the prison kitchen or something like that.

[gatorboy]

16. That or Fox Commentator.

[Loudmxr]

18. Ever notice its the liberals who get shot??

This is the tragic result of the unfettered fear and distain for our fellow Americans that the Rush/Hannity/Gibson et al preach.
And for why do they do it??
POWER.

MONEY.

In that order. Thats it. Only those two reasons.

Richard Clarke said something the other night, close enough to put in quotes, "While we may not be able to do anything legally to these people they should be shunned from polite society".

That would take care of both of their reasons would we if could only stand and do it.

B-)

[Name removed]

19. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[aikoaiko]

20. I'm hoping its a short life -- death penalty

[paparush]

21. Tennessee Has the Death Penalty

[racaulk]

23. Man Coulter.

:eyes:

[iamahaingttta]

22. Personally, I think that...

...Savage, Hannity and O'Reilly should be named as co-conspirators at his trial.

[racaulk]

24. K&R

Thank you for this!

[SammyWinstonJack]

27. It's ALWAYS an *election year*. Lately, it seems. Shameful!

x(

[redqueen]

29. "failed so badly that you don't even have the slightest idea who we are."

:applause:

[randr]

30. One more uberconservative, rightwing, republic, gun toting, hateful coward

will no longer be free on our planet.
These bastards are so chickenshit that they decide to have someone else commit their suicide for them.
The lowest of the low. Putting the responsibility on someone else to end their miserable lives.
And while they are at it they decide to execute people they hate as a final act of terrorism disguised as some form of political bravado.
How many more of these fuckers are out there?
The "unarmed liberals" attending the church that had the balls to step up and grab the asshole are true American Heroes. Thanks to them this coward will most likely spend the rest of his miserable life attending to the sexual desires of his hated fellow inmates.
I hope he is spared the death penalty so that his torment will last as long as possible.

[TheMadMonk]

36. And this post is symptomatic of exactly what is wrong with America.

Even as you decry the hatred of "these people" you (and that's a very large collective you BTW) behave exactly like them.

Make the subject paedos and that collective you becomes a howling, hate spewing lynch minded majority.

It is like there is a festering pool of hatred in the American psyche which demands an outlet: Libruls, Rednecks, gun nuts, anti-gun nuts, gays, kiddie fiddlers, Muslims... ... ... Pick you American and let them choses their subject and they will tell you in no uncertain and generally graphically violent terms, exactly what should be done to eliminate "the problem".

[SidneyCarton]

31. K&R

The Tennessee shooting is our failure, our failure for not making things better sooner. We have let people fall through the cracks. When the only light in the abyss is that kindled by the hatred our enemies sow, we should not be surprised when that which climbs out of the abyss seeks our destruction. 2008 must be the year the tide turns back, that we get a leader who not only speaks but acts, and actively tries to spread the light of good government and opportunity into the dark places of our nation (that are rapidly expanding) there will be more incidents like this one regardless, but if nothing is done they will be far more common, and in far greater magnitude.

[jmondine]

32. While I agree that "liberal" Democratic politicians are far too timid during an election cycle...

One of the ultimate ironies of this tragedy is that in that church was an entire community which, had the shooter entered looking for help instead of intending to commit violence, would have most likely reached out and acted in a way that could have made a real positive difference in his life.

Instead, two people are dead, at least four injured, and the man is going to prison for the rest of his life.

[tnlurker]

33. From what I have read this guy had two goals

1. Kill Liberals
2. Suicide by Cop

He really wasn't looking for a job. He had given up on life and was taking as many of his perceived enemies with him as possible.

[santamargarita]

35. Just Wait! Some right-wing asshole will get him off...

...then he'll get a job as a Fox News Liar!

[Damian the LHP]

37. O'Reilly, Weiner, and Hannity.

The Mein Kampf of the new generation of fascism.

If Manson could be charged for his "family"'s crimes, then these asshats can be charged for this man's.

I maintain that they're traitors, and should be treated as such.