Rep. Louie Gohmert, who may very well be the dumbest man ever to serve in the U.S. Congress (and imagine the competition for that title), took to the airwaves on Friday and said that those tragic shootings at a Batman screening in Colorado are all due to “ongoing attacks on Judeo-Christian beliefs.”
During a radio interview on The Heritage Foundation’s “Istook Live!” show, Gohmert was asked why he believes such senseless acts of violence take place. Gohmert responded by talking about the weakening of Christian values in the country.
“You know what really gets me, as a Christian, is to see the ongoing attacks on Judeo-Christian beliefs, and then some senseless crazy act of terror like this takes place,” Gohmert said.
“Some of us happen to believe that when our founders talked about guarding our virtue and freedom, that that was important,” he said. “Whether it’s John Adams saying our Constitution was made only for moral and religious people … Ben Franklin, only a virtuous people are capable of freedom, as nations become corrupt and vicious they have more need of masters … We have been at war with the very pillars, the very foundation of this country.”
Ernest Istook, the host of the show and a former Oklahoma congressman, jumped in to clarify that nobody knows the motivation of the alleged Aurora gunman. Gohmert said that may be true, but suggested the shootings were still “a terrorist act” that could have been avoided if the country placed a higher value on God.
“People say … where was God in all of this?” Gohmert said. “We’ve threatened high school graduation participations, if they use God’s name, they’re going to be jailed … I mean that kind of stuff. Where was God? What have we done with God? We don’t want him around. I kind of like his protective hand being present.”
But it gets worse. As Justin Griffith points out, he also lied about atheists in the military:
GOHMERT: …But, ya know, I might mention something else that had not been public yet, most of us that follow the military know we have had an extraordinary increase in suicide in the military –and it’s just heartbreaking. And, I’ve sat with families around their kitchen tables and they are going ‘we never saw this coming – ya know, we didn’t know.” And there was a study commissioned…
ISTOOK: And, Louie, we’re gonna have to finish…
GOHMERT: Well, let me say this very quickly – but its six thousand personality index profiles. And, what they found, and I don’t know if they will make it public – one of the participants told me ‘ the results may not go public’; but, all of the people who committed suicide, within their thousands of people studied, were part of the 2-percent most atheistic members of the military. We’ve lost our faith.
That kind of stupid really should cause physical pain.
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Rev. BigDumbChimp
July 21, 2012 at 10:40 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Honesty: Not a Christian moral command
nigelTheBold, Venomous Demonic Hater
July 21, 2012 at 10:48 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Is it just me, or is this an attempt to equate the severity of the “attacks on Judeo-Christian beliefs” with the horrific viciousness of a mass-murder shooting?
I mean, in addition to the supposed persecution of Christians.
Trebuchet
July 21, 2012 at 10:51 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I couldn’t help thinking that “dumbest man ever to serve in the US Congress” conveniently excludes Michele Bachmann.
democommie
July 21, 2012 at 10:54 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Louie the Gomer is the poster child for what happens when states are allowed to close their mental health inpatient facilities. Well, either that or he’s just one of legion of lying fucbag PatriotiKKK MurKKKans who prolly have their strapons decorated with an “Old Gloryhole” theme. I allow that the Venn diagram for that pair of demographics may be a perfect circle.
slc1
July 21, 2012 at 10:57 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Rep. Louie Gohmert, who may very well be the dumbest man ever to serve in the U.S. Congress
In fairness, Allen West, Steve King, and James Inhofe have yet to weigh in on this incident.
bachalon
July 21, 2012 at 10:57 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
You know what? I’m tired of this “Not a godly enough nation,” crap.
I live in a TX town with 65,000 people. On any given day, I can count upwards of 15 churches during a 20 minute drive depending on where I’m going. This includes two types of Lutherans, a bilingual Jehovah’s Witness hall, a few Baptists, some Presbytarians, a Catholic church, and a lot of others. There’s even an orthodox Jewish synagogue and a fundamentalist tabernacle. I run into Mormons a few times a month.
The store I work at has some sort of kitschy Christian junk in almost every section of the store be it ornate crosses, bible verses inscribed onto plastic rocks, wall plaques with cutesy sayings (ASAP: always stop and pray!), and other stuff in addition to the several employees with visible Christian tattoos or Christian themed jewelry
The president talks about his religion quite often, and now I’m hearing MORE of this from all the people clutching their pearls about this shooting.
How is this NOT a Christian nation?
Every time I hear someone say something like that I want to turn to them and say, “You know what? I’m a Buddhist. The closest temple to me is an hour away. Now sit down, shut up, and try to enjoy your privilege while you still have it.”
dingojack
July 21, 2012 at 10:58 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Henry II wondered aloud ‘Who will rid me of this troublesome priest’…
Robert de Brus, 7th Lord Annandale, began his long career by meeting with a rival (under an oath of protection*) then murdering him – in a church …
Medieval people were extremely pious (particularly those mentioned above) that’s why violence was almost unknown in those days.
@@
Dingo
—–
* That is, they both swore to god that neither would harm the other
raven
July 21, 2012 at 11:02 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
It’s just the xian ghouls again.
They show up after every disaster, natural or human made.
Rick Warren has already blamed it on biology teachers.
Gohmert has blamed it on atheists.
FWIW, Holmes was from a Presbyterian church going family and was described as “active in the church”.
I’m sure we will hear from the usual ghouls. As soon has Pat Robertson’s keepers wake him up and inject him with whatever serum they use to animate him, he will drone on about it being caused by abortion, uppity women, and Moslems.
raven
July 21, 2012 at 11:11 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The eerie thing about this shooter is that there is no real rational explanation.
A former Ph.D. student in neuroscience with no record, from an upper middle class family in San Diego. The boy next door.
We humans always try to make sense of things but sometimes they just don’t make sense.
Only two? They aren’t trying hard enough. In my area, there are at least three, Evangelical, Missouri, and, to my horror, a WELS. Might be a Free around somewhere too.
criticaldragon1177
July 21, 2012 at 11:14 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
BigDumbChimp
you wrote,
——————————————-
Honesty: Not a Christian moral command
——————————————-
Doesn’t the ninth commandment forbid lying?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_shall_not_bear_false_witness_against_your_neighbor
bachalon
July 21, 2012 at 11:16 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I guess it depends on how they’re defining “neighbor?”
TGAP Dad
July 21, 2012 at 11:18 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
JHC is this guy stupid. IIRC he’s also the congressman who apologized to BP chairman Tony Hayworth because the other congressmen in the hearing were being all mean to him about a little smudge of oil in the gulf of Mexico.
dingojack
July 21, 2012 at 11:20 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Nope, you can say the sky is orange with pink polka dots and that’s fine, saying your neighbour stole your wheelbarrow when you know thay didn’t – that’s a death sentence.
wholething
July 21, 2012 at 11:23 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@ criticaldragon1177
As any apologist will tell you “bearing false witness” means perjury because the penalty for most crimes was death. So, lying for Jesus is fine.
Also, “Thou shalt not kill” only refers to murder, obviously, otherwise you couldn’t carry out the penalties for eating shrimp, wearing clothes with mixed fabrics or picking up sticks on the Sabbath.
Rev. BigDumbChimp
July 21, 2012 at 11:24 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
fuck you
Yeah like Christians ever follow those things.
Joey Maloney
July 21, 2012 at 11:29 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
He may well be the dumbest man but I don’t think he’ll win dumbest person honors as long as Michele Bachmann is serving.
Chiroptera
July 21, 2012 at 11:30 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
That kind of stupid really should cause physical pain.
Unfortunately, it does…except that it’s the wrong people who get to suffer.
harold
July 21, 2012 at 11:45 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Raven said –
Yep.
http://www.examiner.com/article/rick-warren-aurora-shooting-the-fault-of-evolution?cid=PROD-redesign-right-next
This kind of stuff is post-modern and bizarre.
No non-human animal mass murders members of the same species, and virtually no non-human animal ever kills any other animal except for food. Rick Warren has to know that. Everyone knows that.
No science class teaches that humans are exactly the same as any or all other species of animal. Rick Warren has to know that. Everyone knows that.
If James Holmes had been “taught that he should behave as some other species of animal behaves” and “believed it” (it’s painful to even write some stupidity), even if he had decided to behave like a large carnivore, say a brown bear or cougar, this attack would not have taken place, because brown bears never use firearms to massacre helpless victims for no reason.
Warren’s intended listeners have to know all of this as well.
There is no intention of honesty in communications like this. There is no pretense of decency. There is no pretense of the slightest empathy with the victims.
There is nothing but an unspeakably depraved desire to manipulate an emotional situation to create an attack on perceived rivals.
But what makes it especially depraved is the apparent lack of desire to even pretend that the message of hate is congruent with reality.
harold
July 21, 2012 at 11:46 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Nitpick, sometimes they do in defense of territory or during a mating ritual, but with non-human animals, any killing that happens is virtually always for food or reproduction.
dingojack
July 21, 2012 at 11:59 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Killer whales sometimes kill and play with their food (as do cats).
“No non-human animal mass murders members of the same species…”
Nonsense – whales eat shitloads* of krill, sharks eat huge number of sardines, grizzly bears eat so many salmon they can’t eat any more…**
:) Dingo
—-
* That’s a technical term for the amount eaten, I believe
** :D (Yes – I get you meant ‘Apart from Humans, animals don’t mass murder members of their own species’).
Area Man
July 21, 2012 at 12:01 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
According to a local news report, in the parking lot of the high school where they took the survivors, someone showed up to hand out bibles, and someone else showed up carrying a giant cross, among other more appropriate things. The newscasters tried their best to make it sound like giving comfort to the victims rather than what it appeared to be, which is proselytizing.
Pyra
July 21, 2012 at 12:06 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The opportunism of preaching at death is sickeningly frequent. Every funeral I’ve been to, and even a few weddings in some fundamental churches turned into a quest to convert everyone and to seek to try to get people to make sure they were keeping Christ in government and all other places of authority. It’s really not much of a surprise that the most opportunistic of humans would seek to use this to preach where many people would be sure to get the message. And besides, if they can pin it on the Other, they are absolved from having to think about real ways to help try to decrease the instances of these tragedies. It’s a sickening mess I can’t tolerate.
ArtK
July 21, 2012 at 12:18 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@ Gohmert
Ah, the good old “there’s evidence but it’s secret” gambit.
Justin Griffith
July 21, 2012 at 12:38 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
It’s worse than this:
I don’t think he’s lying about being told such stats. I’ve been screaming about this unconstitutional Spiritual Fitness testing and training (both mandatory) since December 2010. I said from the beginning that not only is it illegal, unethical, fucked up, etc… It’s likely to generate dubious statistics to be used to spend MORE and MORE money and further entrench the chaplaincy into our mental health care.
As a knee-jerk reaction to climbing suicide rates, they created the Spiritual Fitness bullshit. That test alone cost YOU, the taxpayer, $125 MILLION (more than they spend on rape prevention / reaction DoD-wide annually).
Then the suicide rate skyrocketed (one every day now). As did the sexual assault statistics (19,000 per year).
I’m submitting FOIA to find out where these stats came from. I have a sinking suspicion that there are some lobbyists shopping around this Spiritual Fitness nonsense to congress for more funding / power. The numbers he quoted were too realistic in terms of how many people have been ‘tested’.
democommie
July 21, 2012 at 1:42 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“Louie the Gomer is the poster child for what happens when states are allowed to close their mental health inpatient facilities.
fuck you”
Somebody’s feeling a mite testy. For you I wouldn’t think a “/s” was necessary. Sorry, but Louie Gohmert certainly acts like one crazy motherfucker–and a lot of crazy motherfuckers, out of the state’s custody and off their meds, cause all sorts of problems for society. In Gohmert’s case he is not just delusional he’s pathalogically enraged about other people’s right to disagree with his delusions. Fuck him.
puppygod
July 21, 2012 at 1:44 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@18 harold
Oh yes, they do. Animals kill for food, defending themselves, their young or their territory. They kill for fun, or by mistake. They kill competitors for sex and for resources. Some even engage in mass-murders of the same species, cannibalizing significant percentage of newly hatched young.
There is no point making generalizations about animal behaviour – some are docile and never retaliate, some are aggressive to the point of attacking anything without provocation. “Doing something like animal” is meaningless phrase.
dingojack
July 21, 2012 at 1:49 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Demo – you once said:
A change of heart?
Dingo
caseloweraz
July 21, 2012 at 2:02 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
TGAP Dad wrote: “IIRC he’s also the congressman who apologized to BP chairman Tony Hayworth because the other congressmen in the hearing were being all mean to him about a little smudge of oil in the gulf of Mexico.”
No, sorry; that was Joe Barton of Texas.
dan4
July 21, 2012 at 2:59 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“What have we done with God. We don’t want him around. I kind of like his protective hand being present.”
Sounds more like he’s talking about a genie than the traditional omnipresent God of Biblical theology.
zmidponk
July 21, 2012 at 3:10 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
So, let me get this straight. A guy goes into a cinema showing the new Batman film, in full SWAT-style body armour and gas mask, with two Glock handguns, an AR-15 rifle and a shotgun, and starts using them to methodically start killing people for no apparent reason, then, when caught by the police, says that he’s the Joker, and it’s not the fault of him being crazier than a shithouse rat, but the fault of ATHEISM?
Give me a fucking break.
criticaldragon1177
July 21, 2012 at 3:25 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
zmidponk,
I agree, its ridiculous. I don’t even know what religion James Holmes practiced (mostly Christianity, given the fact he lived in the united states). However even if he is an atheist, so what, and if he’s not an atheist we have even less reason to think that atheism caused this. The guy is clearly deranged anyway.
Dr X
July 21, 2012 at 3:30 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@zmidponk:
Wingnuts only say that a killer is crazy when the killer espouses right-wing political views. All others kill because of associations with, and influences of, various wingnut-designated boogeymen.
ehmm
July 21, 2012 at 6:05 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Two words: “terror babies”. Nothing to see here. Move along.
On another note, my sympathies go out to the slain and wounded and to their families.
Not to be too blunt about it, but if I had to point a finger at what motivated the James Holmes, or more accurately, what ultimately made this guy snap, maybe its the economy. This is a country with a lot of college graduates that have no hope of a career at the moment and a very bleak future going forward.
On the same day this hit the news, one of my co workers told me they had to leave work early to attend a visitation for a friends son. He had a wife and a couple of kids. He’d lost his job a while back and his unemployment just ran out. After having an argument with his wife, he committed suicide by shooting himself in the head.
I remember an article a few months back about how the suicide rate in Greece has seen a massive increase in the past year, also related to collapsing wealth and failed businesses and so on.
Just a thought.
Oh, and Rick Warren can go fuck himself.
kyoseki
July 21, 2012 at 6:18 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Even if it was the economy that drove this guy to desperation (and I might buy that if this wasn’t a pretty meticulously planned attack), where does the impulse to take innocent people with you come from?
democommie
July 21, 2012 at 6:49 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“A change of heart?
Dingo”
No.
I don’t think that Gohmert and Chambers are anything alike.
Chambers is a passionate man who has been said to be crazy by his detractors.
Gohmert is a batshit KKKrazzee motherfucker who has been said to be sane and patriotic by his supporters.
Neither of those characterizations is even close to accurate.
ehmm
July 21, 2012 at 7:08 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I don’t know. What makes anyone do anything like this? Why do some people commit violence against themselves or against other people? What makes someone go from “fuck the world” to “I’m going to kill myself” or “I’m going to take as many people with me as I can”? Why do some teenagers commit suicide while, on some rare occasions, they arm themselves and walk into a school? Maybe these impulses manifest in different ways.
Either way, I’m guessing this guy was not behaving completely rationally when he conceived this, nor do I think he’ll be found to be picture of mental health. I’m also guessing that when this all shakes out, he’s not going to say “the economy made me do it”. I’m not suggesting it’s that simple.
Based on what I’m reading about this incident, it doesn’t seem obvious to me that he any particular axe to grind or that he’s some kind of Anders Breivik or survivalist militia type.
harold
July 21, 2012 at 7:13 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
puppygod –
I stand by my generalization that other species don’t take firearms to a crowded theater and open fire. I think it’s a fair generalization.
kyoseki
July 21, 2012 at 7:58 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Well yeah, he definitely wasn’t all there, no argument from me on that point.
Hopefully we’ll find out what passes for “logic” in this guy’s head in due course.
Dr X
July 21, 2012 at 8:25 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
kyoseki:
Most of what we feel and what we feel compelled to do isn’t logical. Love, hate, revulsion, rage, anxiety, hope, impulses, art, stories, whatever, logic is just the jostled rider on top of the mad horse. To understand the why of human beings, you have to understand the why of the mind, which isn’t based on logic.
kyoseki
July 21, 2012 at 8:40 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Well yes, that’s why I put logic in “”s
Dr X
July 21, 2012 at 8:41 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Got you.
Dr X
July 21, 2012 at 8:41 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I mean, I understand.
Area Man
July 22, 2012 at 12:21 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@31:
According to one news report about his upbringing, he was from a “church-going family”. That doesn’t say anything about his present beliefs, but he was apparently raised an observant Christian.
@33:
The guy was a PhD student up until last month, so he should have had a stipend that would have allowed him to live in relative comfort given that he’s a young guy with no dependents living in a cheap apartment. And if he planned on sticking with it, he would have continued to receive a stipend for up to several more years.
It’s possible that problems with school caused him lose his shit. Last I heard, he did poorly on his comps but the university had not taken any moves to remove him. He apparently did that on his own. And it was just 1 month ago, and he’s apparently been planning this for longer.
By the way, not that this makes my point of view any more perceptive than anyone else’s, but I live right down the street from where this happened, I’ve seen many movies at that theater, and I work at the campus where this guy was a student; his booby-trapped apartment is right at the edge of campus. Our building was evacuated on Friday on the improbable chance that he may have booby trapped that too. So this has been like a punch in the gut for me. I can only imagine what people who lost someone must feel like.
Jafafa Hots
July 22, 2012 at 2:19 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
A bit off topic, but my mother went to this weekend’s Peach Festival in Marysville CA today and took a couple of photos of what the Republican Party headquarters had done to dress up their storefront. They were inviting everyone inside wanted to register them, offering a rummage sale, but the best enticement had a big poster right in the front window:
Their Gun Raffle!!
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7266/7619298992_0efcdc4214_h.jpg
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7257/7619299816_153c46c27e_b.jpg
dingojack
July 22, 2012 at 2:50 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Demo – I wasn’t calling you a hypocrite, I was merely pointing out your earlier (highly cogent) post about how easy it is to dismiss a person by labelling them ‘mentally ill’*.
The biggest difference between this guy and Chambers, is not only the one you pointed out (who doing the labelling) but also that latter doesn’t go around shooting innocent people who are trying to watch a movie, no matter how ‘crazy’ his detractors feel he is.
But simply labelling the former as ‘a most peculiar man’, however, and ignoring the problem (until the next one comes along) isn’t very helpful. We should perhaps take your advice and be a little careful with labels here.
Dingo
—–
* I believe the thread involved a woman who stood up in a town meeting and gave a long, rambling, disconnected, bigoted speech. She was well known to be mentally ill (and not medicating). Your response was the post quoted above (minus a bit about the woman in question, hidden under an ellipsis) was a response to a jab a Chambers. (But, of course, I could be wrong).
azportsider
July 22, 2012 at 6:35 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Ed: Rep. Louie Gohmert, who may very well be the dumbest man ever to serve in the U.S. Congress…”
Gohmert’s pretty stupid, all right; but since you did write “ever” I’ll put my money on JD Hayworth.
democommie
July 22, 2012 at 7:36 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
dingojack:
Point taken. I did, in the first comment observe that Gohmenrt might be crazy OR just a run-o-the-mill GOPster.
I see, in re-reading the comment that I did equate being emotionally/mentally troubled with being a liar. I apologize for that comparison.
Gohmert is a lying fuckbag and quite likely to be crazy as well.
Rev. BigDumbChimp
July 22, 2012 at 9:12 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
At which internet University did you get your psychiatry diploma?
Even in your attempt at clarification and apology you are still denigrating those with mental health issues because it’s an easy and lazy way to label someone who does things you find odd, bad, harmful etc…
People can be disgusting evil fucked up assholes without being mentally ill.
democommie
July 22, 2012 at 2:18 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
And people can be completely and CLINICALLY observed to be INSANE without the least bit of rage in their demeanor.
Gohmert’s behavior is either cynical to an extraordinary degree or he’s a prick and a MENTALLY DISTURBED INDIVIDUAL. Does that work better for you? JESUS.
I’m not sure why you have a pole up your ass on this comment thread but I would be one of hundreds of commenters here and elsewhere on the intertoobz who have characterized Gohmert, Limbaugh, Malkin, Beck, Bachman, Michael Savage and many, many other reiKKKwing commentators, legislators & pundits as fucking loonz–the spoken or unspoken reference to their craziness.
As for my having a psychiatry degree. Do you have one in political science, chesmistry, medicine, theology, economics, law or any of the other areas in which most of the commenters here have–if they’re lucky–a couple?
You wanna think Gohmert’s just a complete fucking asshole, that’s your privilege. When I have read/heard a list of the insane propositions that he subscribes to–propositions that absolutely defy logic–I gotta think he’s fucking nuts. The part about him being a prick is just a cherry on the sundae of assholishness.
laurentweppe
July 23, 2012 at 1:34 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The killer is a descendant of Mayflower pilgrims right?
Well: therefore anglo-saxon colonialism is to blame for this killing: give us back Louisiana!
dingojack
July 23, 2012 at 1:54 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Laurent – he’s definitely a descendant of Charlemagne so you’ll not be getting Louisiana back.
Bummer.
Dingo
stace
July 23, 2012 at 8:20 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@12:
Actually, I believe that was Joe Barton, but you were close, just another dumbass Texas congress critter.
Gohmert Blames Aurora Shooting on Atheism | Dispatches from the … | Christian Dailys
July 22, 2012 at 6:04 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
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