Wyatt Earp, Wyatt Earp...

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Yet another reason why I have no intention no way no how of ever settin' foot in Arizona.

Gun totin' fools can now go packin' into bars.

Guess they want that guy who went armed to the political rally in New England earlier this summer to come back home.

Wyatt Earp, heck, even Marshall Matt Dillon would be appalled.

Our collective national meltdown into insanity continues....
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crossposted at firedoglake's The Seminal

Looking Back, Looking Forward

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Yesterday Master Sgt. Woodrow Wilson Keeble was at long last given the Medal of Honor he so richly deserved. Posthumously. He is long gone, wife and son as well. The honor was accepted at the White House by his stepson and nephew, with the North Dakota governor and other North Dakota dignitaries and his surviving family and friends in attendance for the presentation by the Current Occupant.

ABC gave the ceremony brief note on last night's news [damned if I can find it this morning on their website, though], and a fuller story is told here in the local press. Too soon, the attention of the media will move on...already has, truth be told. They'll be full of "the politics" today, like junkies givin' breathless hyperbole to get one more "fix" of primary nastiness and battle/horserace/slugfest and a po' victimized blonde white woman.

Will the touts give any note today to Jamiel Shaw, Jr.?

He's posthumous now, too. Gunned down while talking on his cell phone to his girl friend. The proverbial good kid trying to rise above the stereotypes and work hard and succeed as an athlete. At 17, he already was seen as a rising star, scouted by Stanford and others.

And now, he's a statistic. Another victim of gun violence. A black youth, workin' like a man to make something of himself. His mother serving in Iraq, his father keepin' it together back home.

Tell us again how tough we white women have it, Gloria.

Is Your Preacher Packin’ this Morning?

Just where is the line between civilization and total anarchy and chaos? Thanks to those “good folks” like the testosterone challenged at the National Rifle Association and their zealous Republicronies who need “my big kill” “hunting” stories to supplement their deficient manhood, it’s open season for gun carrying in the Minnesota side of Prairie Country and a whole lot of other places.

And we don’t mean those rifle racks that decorate pickups in hunting season. Or the bozos sittin’ boozed up on the side of the road, guns clutched in their cold, passed-out hands. Yep. Seen that myself. Not surprised it goes on in those fancy-schmancy “hunting” preserves, too.

No, thanks to conceal and carry laws like the one in Minnesota, preachers can go packin’ to their Sunday sermons. But then, so can anyone walking in through the front door. Unless the church proactively says no. Oh, not as “no” as the gun nuts tried to force, thanks to some sensible justice for a change, but still...

And if you think you can stay away from people packin’ by sleepin’ in on Sunday morning, well, has George W. Bush’s Interior Department got a new wrinkle for you:

Park rangers, retirees and conservation groups are protesting a plan by the Interior Department to reconsider regulations restricting loaded guns in national parks.

But then what would we expect from the folks who gave us shootin’ an old guy in the face and feedlot plinking for quail and other game. Like skeet shooting, ’cept they kick up the quail. Might as well hunt your grandkids’ stuffed animals, eh, Grandpa Dick?

Well regulated? That’s for chumps like you and me who believe in sensible gun laws, strictly enforced, with loopholes and nutty exemptions closed.

As for those macho guys, let’s make it sportin’—why don’t you go out on the front lines in Afghanistan or Iraq? Hey, if a fresh-faced young Prince can do it, why not you?

They corrupt everything they touch. Everything.