I’m starting to love when Betsy DeVos goes and speaks to Congress. It’s the funniest thing C-Span gets to air. Seriously, she says things that are blindingly stupid or ignorant, and everyone’s soul in the room dies a little every time it happens. Even the Republican who have to pretend to think she isn’t totally incompetent at her job, have trouble holding it together. It’s really entertaining. This week, it was watching Senator Patrick Leahy grill her about funding and her School Safety Commission. When asked if her Commission would look into the role guns play in gun violence (you know, that thing the White House, including the Donald himself and in tears Sarah Huckabee Sanders assured the nation this commission was set up to do) she said no, and acted like she was completely baffled as to why she would be asked such a question. The problem is that it should have been a dumb question. He should have asked that, and the obvious answer should have been “Well of course. It’s Gun Violence. Gun is in the description.” The answer should not have been “No, and why are you looking at me like I’m a crazy person?” Seriously, watching her fumble her way through these interviews like a drunk driver talking to a police officer is wonderful…wonderful in a way that has me worried about the education of our kids.
When it comes to news, on any given story, I have this habit of trying to read multiple sources to try and get a clearer picture of how things may have happened. Because it’s easy enough to make small gaffes or misspoken moments into bigger issues than they actually are. And as someone whose job it is to exaggerate things for comedic effect, I’d start from as neutral a place as I can. I say all that to talk about Ted Nugent. I saw several headlines over the weekend talking about Ted, known Gun advocate, and board member of the NRA. Now, he can be a bit…out there, but when it was suggested by headlines that he openly advocated for out and out shooting people, I thought to myself “well, obviously there is some context missing here. Then I listened to the clip and read the quote word for word and…yeah, no, he just told people to shoot liberals, democrats and half of the government. Seriously. “Don’t ask why. Just know that evil, dishonesty, and scam artists have always been around and that right now they’re liberal, they’re Democrat, they’re RINOs, they’re Hollywood, they’re fake news, they’re media, they’re academia, and they’re half of our government, at least, so come to that realization. There are rabid coyotes running around. You don’t wait till you see one to go get your gun. Keep your gun handy, and every time you see one, you shoot one.” Those are his words. One could reasonable call that an incitement to violence.
Trump’s big idea for curbing school shooting is arming teachers. Never mind a boatload of statistics that would suggest that it’s a bad idea, including my favorite one, that was reported by the NYPD, who reported that their own officers, when in a gun fight, only hit their intended target about 18% of the time. These are people who expected to be in situations where firing a weapon was a distinct possibility, and have trained far more than any teacher on how to react in such a high stress situation. 18% of the time. On Thursday, a High School Teacher and Reserve Police officer in Seaside, Ca had to apologize publicly for firing a gun in the classroom on accident. I don’t feel like I need to elaborate any further.
Mind the Exit 