Nazis: All About Taking Guns Away.

Image credit: STILLFX.

Frances Swaggart, wife of Jimmy Swaggart, has been mouthing off about the recent marches for gun control and reform, and she doesn’t like it, no sir. Ms. Swaggart did pop up with some interesting reasoning, which she claims is historical fact:

“Hitler’s regime took away guns from the people in Germany and then he herded all of those who did not like it into box cars and shipped them to concentration camps where they were enslaved, beaten, raped and murdered,” she said. “The victims didn’t fire a shot in self defense because their guns had been taken away. That’s a fact.”

“And that’s why evil people want to take the guns away from law-abiding citizens here in the United States of America,” the host opined. “Everybody says, ‘Let’s get rid of the guns.’ It’s the worst decisions that could be ever made. Get rid of the guns. No! No! No! Put God back into the schools.”

Um…how in the hell do you even address this level of wrong? I, uh, can’t even figure out where to start. Perhaps with this: if everyone was armed, maybe the time to go on a nazi shooting spree would have been before the herding into box cars? No, I just can’t do this, it all seems terribly frivolous to even address this monstrous falsity in the face of such evil. I certainly know where the evil lies in this country, and that’s with christian conservatives, who keep falling further off the cliff of lunacy. Dangerous lunacy. Unfortunately, there’s more of this, but even reading it makes me feel sick. You can read the rest at RawStory.

A ‘Separation Of LGBT And State’.

Scott Lively, a man who thinks executing queer folk is a great idea is running for governor of Massachusetts. I most sincerely hope the people of Massachusetts bury this evil asshole in a blizzard of no votes at all.

Lively asserted that “there is no human right based in sodomy” and promised that if he becomes governor, he will ensure that the rights of religious individuals will always triumph over the rights of LGBTQ people.

“The two things that I would do in Massachusetts,” Lively said, “number one is what I call the First Amendment supremacy clause … It just simply says that whenever there is a conflict between [sexual orientation nondiscrimination] regulations and the First Amendment, the First Amendment has to prevail. It has to prevail; you cannot have newly invented laws and policies superseding the most fundamental right of Americans.”

Oh, how I wish these hateful, bigoted asshole christians would get the fuck over the whole sodomy thing. Men who happen to be gay are not the be all end all of LGBTQ, but you’d never know it going by Lively and those like him. Naturally, it’s all about the mighty, terrifying, all powerful penis! A teensy bit of education could go a long way here – all gay men don’t indulge in anal sex, and plenty of hetero people do indulge.

Of course you can have newly invented laws and policies, you flaming dipshit. They happen all the damn time. For all your waving about of the word amendment, you seem to be remarkably unaware of what it means. Oh, the irony!

“The second [policy] is what I call the separation of LGBT and state,” he continued. “To the extent that religion is restricted in government, so should the LGBT political movement because it is basically the counter to it. They’re opposite political forces and movements competing for influence in society and government should get its thumb off the scale when it comes to that and let’s get back to like we had it in the ’40s and ’50s.”

So much for the constitution love. Interesting how that goes straight out the window when it comes to separation of church and state. You don’t get to institute separations to cater to your unhinged hatred, Mr. Lively. It doesn’t work that way. As for the 1940s and 1950s, no, let’s not go back there. I wouldn’t mind if you went back there, Mr. Lively, then we’d be well shot of you. Can someone get on that time machine already? Please?

The full story with video is at RWW.

A Is For Arbetarrörelse.

We have a new series, from Ice Swimmer. Many photographers do an alphabet round at least once, it’s fun and it’s a challenge on several different levels, finding a descriptive photo to correspond to each letter of the alphabet. I’ve done this several times myself, back in the day, but Ice Swimmer elevates this from the standard challenge, and is bringing us words in Finnish, Swedish, and English. Fun, and we all get to learn something!

Arbetarrörelse.

Swedish for Labour movement. The Art Nouveau style stone building is Helsingin työväentalo (Helsinki Labour Hall) which is nowadays operated commercially as a congress centre. There were both Finnish and Swedish speaking workers in Helsinki. The facade of the building was built from the stones quarried from the rock that stood at the site. The oldest part of the building was completed in 1908, nine years before the Finnish Independence. Most other labour halls in Finland were wooden buildings.

Click for full size!

© Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved.

Working On and Slobbery Dogs…

Lately, I’ve been working on the floor, so this is my fault, but slobbery dogs, aaaaauuuugh. One of the doors in my studio opens onto the lav, and the door was open. I go in for around 10 seconds, and Jayne promptly stands over the painting and drools. Now he’s sleeping the sleep of the innocent (What? I didn’t do anything! Why are you yelling? Can I have a treat?)

Sunday Facepalm: AFSS.

Remember Space Force? Oh, AFSS: Amerikka First Space Strategy! Yeah. The Fucking Idiot thinks he’s on to something here.

The White House on Friday unveiled President Donald Trump’s “America First” space strategy, only 10 days after the commander in chief called for a Space Force to militarize low Earth orbit.

“The Trump administration’s National Space Strategy prioritizes American interests first and foremost, ensuring a strategy that will make America strong, competitive, and great,” the plan claims.

The plan officially includes Trump’s promised focus on militarization of space.

I haven’t yet gone and inspected the great plan. Haven’t had enough tea yet. There might not be enough tea for this one. Oh yes, screw science or trying to fix anything here on the planet, the most important thing ever is a dick waving contest in space. I’m imagining the Tiny Tyrant at his desk with a coke and greasy fries, playing with Lego’s Star Wars.

“Trump’s National Space Strategy recognizes that our competitors and adversaries have turned space into a warfighting (sic) domain. While the United States would prefer that the space domain remain free of conflict, we will prepare to meet and overcome any challenges that arise,” the space strategy reads. “Under the President’s new strategy, the United States will seek to deter, counter, and defeat threats in the space domain that are hostile to the national interests of the United States and our allies.”

“Warfighting”, because I guess war isn’t descriptive or clear enough. You want “space domain” to remain conflict free? Easy, stay out of it. Plenty to do planetside, y’know. What fucking threats? Has the empire shown up? Space invaders from Mars? We have plenty of war threats right here on good old Terra Firma. I’d like to see those avoided, but that’s no doubt a forlorn hope.

Space wars are one of the four pillars of the new America First space strategy.

Space Wars! First thing, you’re gonna have to rebrand, you would not believe the amount of things with the name Space Wars attached. Don’t want to get lost in the shuffle or anything.

“Strengthen deterrence and warfighting (sic) options: We will strengthen U.S. and allied options to deter potential adversaries from extending conflict into space and, if deterrence fails, to counter threats used by adversaries for hostile purposes,” the plan directs.

This would be bafflegab for “Donny really really wants to play with nukes!”, right? I have to wonder if making for real light sabers is part of the plan somewhere…

Via Raw Story.

Helios Day Mood.

A special today, the original song by Tinariwen, and then again by a dedicated group of young men (explained below the second video, along with English translation.)

Tinariwen – Sastanàqqàm.

Tinariwen (+IO:I) – Sastanàqqàm.

“A thousand miles from their homeland in northern Mali, across a vast expanse of desert, the music of Tinariwen has found shelter in the hearts of six young musicians from M’hamid el Ghizlane. They were only boys when the desert rockers first visited their home, back in 2006, but they saw an immediate reflection of their own dreams and aspirations in the music they heard. In the years that followed they learned the Tinariwen songbook note for note, word for word, even though they couldn’t speak a word of Tamashek, the language of the Touareg.

When Tinariwen returned to M’hamid in 2016 to record a new album, those young disciples from M’hamid had achieved a remarkable mastery of the desert guitar repertoire. The torch had been passed from hand to hand and heart to heart across the great desert. The young musicians from M’hamid were invited to perform Abdallah’s ‘Sastaqanam’, standing in for their older brothers and playing with uncanny fidelity. But first the members of Tinariwen wrapped new turbans around the heads of their young acolytes, marking not only the passage from boyhood to manhood according to ancient desert custom, but also the transmission of their music across the generations, a transmission that is taking place in the hearts of youth from every corner of the great Sahara.”

SASTANÀQQÀM (I QUESTION YOU)

Ténéré, can you tell me of anything better
Than to have your friends and your mount,
And a brand new goatskin, watertight,
To find your way by the light
Of the four bright stars of heaven,
To know how to find water in
The unlikeliest of places,
And enlist the momentum of the wind
To help you move forward.

Tell me, Ténéré, how you and I
Can remain united, with no hate for each other.
Ténéré, I can now admit that
I have travelled far through this wide world.
Ténéré, I give you my oath
That as long as I’m alive,
I will always come back to you.