Clay Jones for July 08, 2016

So it’s all O.K., an eye for an eye. We should all just be cool about it and stop using words and just arm everybody. That’ll just work fabulously, Mr. Jones. Thank you for caring.I can see why you’re no longer syndicated.

Jones is part of the great American dysfunction.

So is detecting sarcasm, apparently. My point(I’ll run it by slowly) is that if we prohibit people from fighting with words, grousing, hitching, etc., they will feel powerless and resort to weapons. And that one cannot fault people for being upset at the murders of law enforcement officers, whatever brought it on. Ridiculing people for condemning murder of any kind is less than useless. Perhaps that’s why Jones has to self-syndicate.And there you have it.Oh, and one more thing. A few years ago the WSJ ran an article about a mosque in Aleppo, Syria. The mosque resembled a modern American church-air conditioning, Power point, nice seating etc. The mullah preached a message that terrorism grows out of repression. When people are not allowed to have their say, something inside them foresters and corrodes, and many times this leads to violence and death.I wonder what happened to that mosque.

Thanks.

Well, we’ve made a conscious, collective decision to be a violent country. We can’t be too surprised when the violence is directed not just at the powerless, which was ok, but at the powerful, which will require an even more violent response. Essentially, we’re still monkeys flinging poo at each other, with enough tech to make the poo lethal and in larger quantities than we could generate personally.

i am angered by black people being killed because they are black AND i am angered by the monstrous cowards who would snipe and kill policemen.

Shouldn’t judge everyone by Trump’s standards

Thanks, Martens. It is interesting how some other, more primitive organisms “collaborate” on a more consistent basis. I would guess some of the most successful models for life to thrive on our planet would belong to a wide variety of microorganisms. Evolutionarily ancient and incredibly successful over long spans of time compared to humans, their intimate “individual” cooperation with other “individuals” for the good of the shared species is a striking feature. This is not a political statement, simply an observation.

The shooter was standing his ground against a perceived threat. Thank god the GOP and NRA made sure he had all the guns he needed. In open carry Texas where were all the right wing heroes with guns to stop this? The insanely liberal gun laws in this country have their share of the blame.

From Reagan’s invasion of Grenada, we’ve seen an increase in “violence is the answer” to all problems. From the NRA pledge that “bad guys” have a RIGHT to be well enough armed to outgun the police, to military vehicles and weapons being given to police to increase their potential for violent response.

Shooting of unarmed blacks is wrong, shooting of unarmed whites (happened yesterday, but the guy hardly got noticed in the media) to attacks on police and government workers, from Malheur to Dallas, the “guns make me right” crowds have become the dominant theme, on BOTH sides.

Those who want to bomb in Syria, but don’t know WHO to bomb, bombing the wrong people in Afghanistan and Iraq, and Libya, Tunisia, Yemen, Somalia, well toss a dart, and anything hit on the globe is a justified target, if WE throw the dart.

Yin, yang, black, white, the “sense of things” is that actually, all sides deserve to be equal, in protection, and blame when appropriate.

It is time for us to recognized that the “Us vs Them” attitude needs to stop, at least here at home, FIRST. WE are US AND THEM, WE are the ones who should honor “E pluribus Unum”, and not a division that is prohibited in Article Six and the First Amendment of the Constitution. The “three R’s” today dividing America are Race, Religion, and Rebellion.

E pluribus Unum". Is a concept of love, relationship, and cooperation, not hate, division, and self-centered aggrandizement of only “our side”.

ALL LIVES MATTER! Here at home, and around the world. Any politician who calls for “kill ’em all and let God sort ’em out”, doesn’t belong in leadership, whether city, county, state, or national “leadership”.

It is “WE THE PEOPLE”, with recognition of a government that represents that, not just “corporations are people”, or “all people are equal, just some are a little more equal than others”.

Also and importantly, he with the biggest gun, or most guns, is NOT intended to rule, or “call the shots”, in a civilized society. We need to convince Congress that the NRA attitude is NOT the way to a peaceful and productive populace.

The vast majority of law enforcement officers are responsible professionals who defuse rather than escalate confrontations, and work hard to build and maintain community goodwill. But when repeated incidents of rare bad apples murder young black men in minor traffic stops in which the black driver is polite, cooperative and compliant, or petty infractions, and “working within the system” never holds anyone accountable, no one should be surprised when oppressed communities rise up and pay attention to NRA suggestions that they should resort to “Second Amendment remedies” to fight back against the government. Similarly, the vast majority of Muslims are good, law-abiding people. When rare bad apples commit acts of terror, everyone demands the good ones speak out. Will we also demand that the good cops break their “code of silence” and speak up to hold the bad ones responsible? Can we just stop the killing? All of it?