In a country that ascribes hubristic “exceptionalism” to itself and berates self-analysis as “hating America,” we seek absolution via scapegoat, and so we upbraid bogeymen like firearms and Xboxes.

What a gem of a sentence. I would add more simply: honesty has been replaced by cowardice.

From what I read, the assault weapons ban was a poorly written law, which I find incredible as well as inexcusable. Those advocating gun control must demonstrate they fully understand the weapons they aim to regulate.

That said, I appreciate this attempt to look at our broader culture. Although doing so seems very difficult at times, I think we need to get the word out about how societies in other parts of the world do a much better job of protecting the economic and social interests and well-being of their least wealthy and powerful members.

Can there be any doubt any longer that it is in everyone’s interest that all Americans receive a living wage, protected pensions, affordable health care, and adequate time off for vacations and parental leave? I have no doubt we can create a more humane society.

And while blaming video games can seem simplistic, I think we understand human nature enough to know that movies and video games do influence attitudes and behavior. So I would hope that we could agree as a society that we will do everything we can to protect the youngest and most vulnerable among us from these influences.

I am amazed that unedited versions “The Terminator” still air on network TV, with some of the most graphic, dehumanizing violence ever depicted on screen. How shameful that we expose our young children to such gratuitous obscenity. Maybe it is easier to financially cheat and economically maltreat your fellow citizens if their fundamental humanity has already been devalued?

Sir the census data is ten years old not recent so agian check the Internal Revenue service figures and the and the congressional Budget office figures they are accurate up through the last tax season. All Americans pay sells tax but not all Americans pay property taxes so again it is figured on the Income and the value of the property. I believe in a flat tax system were 50% that don’t pay any income tax also must share in the burden of paying for this country if they did they would run every lobbiest and most politicians out of Washington so again you can use President Clinton numbers 2000 AD or you can use up todate numbers 2007 AD. which give a far more accurate reading.
        Trithoverlies/Truthoverlies.
            John R. Bloxson Jr.

Trithoverlies, April 19 at 2:52 pm #

I see that the writer has bought one of the liberal lies that is nothing but myth the rich don’t pay enough taxes why than do they pay 75% of the Tax burden according to the Congressional Budget Office yet make up only 10% of the Population, over 50% of the American population pays no Income tax, and yet recieve rebaits so this put the Urban legend of the Rich not paying their far share on the trash heap of lies believed by many Americans .
====================================

The top 1% pays roughly 19% of the taxes.  You might think that’s insane… until you bother to pick up census data and find out that the top 1% owns 15% of all the income.

And have you ever bothered to pick up a tax bracket?  Every last person in this country has to pay taxes.  The ONLY people who don’t are those that make less than the standard deduction, which is a very very tiny percentage of the population.

Re: truthoverlies

Your comment:  “So stop blamming other lets all begin to take responsability for our own Actions, our own mistakes and our own sins.”

Mr. Bloxson Jr.,  your blame game only points the finger back at YOU.  If you believe that others should “stop blamming other” and “take responsability for our own Actions” then why....are you POINTING the finger?

According to many sources, this being just one, your conclusion is rather laughable.

“THE RICHEST 1 (ONE) PERCENT OF AMERICANS possess more wealth than THE COMBINED WEALTH OF THE BOTTOM 90 (NINETY) PERCENT.”

It also had this statistic:

“THE NEXT RICHEST 9 (NINE) PERCENT also possess more wealth than THE COMBINED WEALTH OF THE BOTTOM 90 (NINETY) PERCENT”

And this:

“Statistics published in Forbes magazine’s annual survey of America’s billionaires expose this little known but shocking reality.  In 1982 there were 13 billionaires; in 1983….15; in 1984….12; in 1985….13; in 1986….26; in 1987….49. Note carefully that prior to 1986 the number of American billionaires had averaged around 13. Then the Reagan administration drastically altered the wealth distribution patterns by introducing new tax legislation favoring the top 1%. In 1986 the number of billionaires DOUBLED, and by 1987 the number of billionaires had virtually QUADRUPLED to 49!!”

http://afgen.com/feudal2.html

Your spelling and grammar are ATROCIOUS, and I happen to know, since mine are bad…but yours, well they certainly “take the cake” so to speak.  Is this all the despots can get for backing these days?

Your comment: “ the writer has bought one of the liberal lies”..... please if there be a RA let him save us from ignorance.  The “writer” just may….he just may….by the wing of his pants be able to SPELL and KNOW more than yourself, imagine that.  YES…IT COULD BE TRUE….

From cbsnews:

” Over two decades, the income gap has steadily increased between the richest Americans, who own homes and stocks and got big tax breaks, and those at the middle and bottom of the pay scale, whose paychecks buy less.

The wealthiest 20 percent of households in 1973 accounted for 44 percent of total U.S. income, according to the Census Bureau. Their share jumped to 50 percent in 2002, while everyone else’s fell.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/08/13/national/main635936.shtml

I sometimes wonder how much force it takes to make a dent in concrete.

I see that the writer has bought one of the liberal lies that is nothing but myth the rich don’t pay enough taxes why than do they pay 75% of the Tax burden according to the Congressional Budget Office yet make up only 10% of the Population, over 50% of the American population pays no Income tax, and yet recieve rebaits so this put the Urban legend of the Rich not paying their far share on the trash heap of lies believed by many Americans . As for the Madoffe’s there are hundreds of others who made their money honestly, but you wouldn’t know that from the News Media, or our President.  Pres. Obama gave about 4% of His income to Charities while Senator McCain gave almost 20% to Charities. Why crucify the Honest business men with the dishonest? Look it is easy to point fingers at the rich but what about those who will sign the mortgage Knowing they can’t afford to pay the monthly payments. Are they no less dishonest than Maddoffe? No they are just as guilty of the Sin of selfish pride which has ruined a many a good person through out History. So stop blamming other lets all begin to take responsability for our own Actions, our own mistakes and our own sins.
        Trithoverlies/Truthoverlies.
            John R. Bloxson Jr.

What would anyone expect with 6.6 billion people on this planet where a few hoard the wealth and access to the natural resources creating impossible situations for survival? What is anyone’s reaction when they feel or realize they have been left out or denied what they would need for survival? What are people going to do when the reality of not finding what they need on a planet that is at this point fast running out of resources, livable space without pollution or just plain air and clean water to breath and drink? And all the while a gun is pointed at their head daring them to become civilly disobedient.

Every nation, large or small, needs an enemy——something for the masses to focus on.  With Cuba and now Venezuela becoming less vindictive, thank God, we have North Korea.  They have nothing we need and make an ideal enemy while Venezuela has oil and Cuba has votes!

Regarding team sports and so on….competitive team and individual sports have been with the human race for centuries. The competitive instinct seems to be a trait that finds expression via sport in cultures around the word.

The problem in the United States is that competition is extended to areas outside of a stadium where it is not appropriate. As David Sirota noted, the economy puts people in competition with each other for access to basic human needs (food, clothing, shelter, etc.) The problems created by such an economy can’t be solved by teaching people that competition in and of itself is something ‘bad’. Whether or not a person plays a sport, capitalism guarantees that person must compete for the resources they need to survive. That’s the problem. In a basketball match, the only thing at stake is the outcome of the game. Under capitalism the stakes are existence itself. It is a pointless exercise to believe that we can exorcise human traits like greed, competition, or what have you. Greed and competition will always be with us. What we can do is organize an economic system so that traits like greed do not get rewarded, and competition for the basic necessities is a thing of the past. This is not to say that teaching people how to work out their conflicts peaceably and encouraging cooperation are pointless exercises. They are not. But rather than claim that there are, like bad cholesterol, ‘good’ and ‘bad’ variants of competition, I’d maintain there are ‘good’ and ‘bad’ outlets for competition. 

As far as football goes, it was not always America’s most loved sport. That honor used to belong to baseball, a much more pacific exercise. The culture has grown more violent, and that fact is reflected in football’s rise in popularity. I think blaming the sport is to put the cart before the horse.

Violent sports are certainly not unique to the U.S. Roman sports spectacles resulted in death for the participants. Wrestling goes back to the ancient Greeks. The Canadians love their hockey and the resultant fights. Or how about bull-fighting just to name one other? That Americans are increasingly turning to more violent forms of sport like the Ultimate Fighting Championship seems undeniable. The culture has been coarsening for years. That doesn’t just apply to sports however. Reality TV, Fox News, tabloid journalism, corporate art, and rampant consumerism are all signs of a culture in decline.

All of this said, I don’t believe the person who objects to competition and its over-emphasis in the culture is a nutcase or her concern that a culture of winner-take-all is harmful to children is misguided. She is right to be concerned. I just think she is pinning the tail on the wrong donkey.

Shouldn’t we have expected the new Department of Homeland Security report saying that “the economic downturn” is “invigorating rightwing extremist activity, specifically the white supremacist and militia movements”?

I don’t why Sirote should give Homeland Security so much credibility. This was the same agency that banned fluids on airplanes because binary bombs could be made from them. I looked up the science of it, and in order to make a liquid explosive on an airplane one would need special types of beakers, plenty of ice, privacy, time, and a very steady hand. Imagine some Arab in the plane’s men’s room trying titrate some acid onto some substrate in a flask resting in large bed of ice. Then you have to make sure you did vibrate the mixture or else you had an ineffective explosion that sprayed corrosive chemicals all over the “lab”.

As to the militia movement, Homeland Security includes war veterans, constitutionalists, gun rights advocates, and immigration restrictionists into the mix. They have weird ideas as to what an extremist is. Millions of Americans are sympathetic to the causes some of these “enemies of state” advocate. To put groups of people under suspicion seems despotic to me. Perhaps preventative detention is the next step.

Harris and Klebold weren’t Christians. Also as I have noted earlier these gun nuts go crazy in April for some reason. Also there is the connection between shootings like this and the use of SSRI’s. Pleae refer to below:

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=07d_1238782976

On the contrary, I cheered when the so-called “assault-weapon ban” expired. That law was useless and stupid and all it did was lead to the Demos’ defeat in 1994 and 12 years of majority-Repub control of Congress. I rather doubt any Demo wants to see a repeat of that—particularly not Mr. Obama.

Good article, Chester. Here’s the link:

The Truth About Columbine

Willing to look in the Mirror- the lost art of Sociology.
why have we yet to hear anyone make the obvious conncetion between our ‘Guns & God’ fanatics and groups like AQ or the Taliban.
When will the line be shown between the Evangelicals political aspirations to make the US ‘A Christian nation’ and the Muslim extremeist who aspire to make Middle Easterners all ‘good’ Mulsims.
Why are we so hesitant to point out Loudly the Chrisitan Right is subjecting Woman to the same controls as are in effect in these middle eastern countries. First control over reproductive rights,then will marital Rape be condoned.
What moral high ground can we claim about the Rights of Homosexual either. Granted we may not take them to the village square and execute them- but didn’t we sentence them to death during the ‘80’s while Ronny turned a blind eye and basically claimed it was a Moral Punishment. Or how about the kid beaten and tied to a WY fencepost, left to die.
A Total ban on guns will not negate violence- these thousands of ways to kill. Nor is the ‘blame it on Entertainment’ a useful mantra- war games have been played since the dawn of man. Caine didn’t Kill Able because of a Video Game.
Poeple Kill because of the Crazy shit going on in their heads- put there by social pressures or social Justifications.
We fail to teach children self- esteem, Responsiblity and determination…Coping mechanisms and intraspection. Far easier to blame all your woes on someone else, then to admit you screwed the Pooch on that.
So it’s the Muslims who are ‘Godless’ (Infidels?). it is islam that is vioelnt and blood thristy (Inquisition). It is Islamic Terrorist who endanger US (McViegh, Atlanta Oylmpic Bombing).
We not longer live in a World where rising up against Church doctrine can get you tortured & killed.To fail to speak out against these dangerous elements in our own society provides little justifaction for condemning other nations tolerance of them.Lucky for them calling them Heretics or Blasphemers, in this day & age, does not include Sticks or Stones ( or pyres or racks or dunking chairs…)
Mincing words with these zealots are literally costing lives, through the imaginary ‘Holy War’, through suicides of gay teens, and of outright murder of innocents hoping to ‘save’ them.
I see no Light between the AQ followers and the Born Again Evangelicals- All about the ‘Gun’ and their misguided defense of ‘God’. Which Commandments need further clarification for these sociopaths?

This is a fascist country. Watch this video and then look at how many comments approve of violence against innocent U.S. citizens and even revel in it:

Baptist pastor beaten + tazed by Border patrol - 11 stitches

And this is done with total impunity by U.S. government officials. Both the Bush and the Obama administrations refuse to prosecute torturers for fear that the Torturers-in-Chief would also be open to prosecution.

This is how they will round us up for their concentration camps if we protest. STOP VOTING FOR THEM! If people just stop voting for them, they could no longer claim to be a legitimate, democratically elected government with the consent of the governed, and the world would stop supporting them.

But the ones clamoring for more violence will continue to vote. They approve of torture, genocide, and everything fascist. What I don’t understand is why those who claim to oppose torture and genocide continue to vote. Can’t they see that peace and democracy have no chance of winning in a U.S. election?

All Children are Paying for Columbine, too.

Children are plagued by the “Zero-Tolerance” laws enacted because of Columbine.This results in up to a 20 day suspension or even expulsion in some cases for having a pocket knife or even having a knife locked up in their car. This means that they will fall behind in their studies. I have been told that the children are not allowed to make up the work they miss. And if a student is already behind, this can send a child down the wrong road. This along with the humiliation of being suspended.

Children are not soldiers and should not be treated as such.

Does our society, and especially young men, think that the John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Sylvester Stallone personas are real—that personal independence and “a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do”—trump all?

‘Tis a formula for worse than chaos.

Good points, David. The gun control is just an exploitation for power and money, same for X games. My question is “if guns are banned how long till bombs, like Afghanistan and Iraq, and Egypt are going to be the weapon of popularity? As for games cowboys and Indians have given way to living room escapades.
Out of necessity for food and shelter and health both parents are working many hours outside the home and the children are bought off or worse condemned to a violent living condition.
Many people are fore-going having children and in this age I quite agree this is the right thing to do.

I agree that rampant consumerism and the growing divide between the rich and the poor is largely responsible for random violence of this kind.

But another question that needs to be addressed is, why is the United States such an exception in the realm of random violence? Why do school shootouts only occur sporadically in the rest of developed world?

Gun control or lack of it does have an impact on the frequency of these incidents (just look at what happened in Britain after the Dunblane massacre and the change in gun laws that followed: nothing). But the issue of religion cannot be ignored here. The United States’ unique cocktail of religious zeal and uncontrolled capitalism means that the country is promoting Christian values of austerity all the while clinging on to a semi-sacred view of material wealth (by any and all means). In the same manner, promotion of puritan values, like abstinence until marriage, flies in the face of lewd advertising and MTV-inspired youth culture.

It’s no wonder children no longer know what to think. The consequences really are quite logical.